Selene: Faking Normal
by PhoenixMist77
Summary: Selene is a new Auradon student, transferred from the Isle of the Lost. On the Isle, Selene was an average girl, practically invisible. She knew how to live among the grungy & evil. Now, no longer invisible, she has to learn how to live among the preppy & good. She needs to learn how to fake normal. Sequel to Selene. Best to read that first, I tend to refer back to a few things.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** Hey everyone! Thank you for everyone that's read Selene and favorited/followed it. And thanks for those that reviewed. Now I'm back with the sequel! I've been so busy with work, but I have been writing. Now that I finally have a free three-day weekend (yay for state holidays!) I can post the first chapter.

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 **Chapter 1**

Jay burst through the front doors of Auradon Prep, running past the statue of King Beast, his friends right behind him. He couldn't wait for them to catch up. She was there. She was off the Isle of the Lost and she was there with him.

The King's Council agreed to allow three new students to transfer from the Isle of the Lost. Carlos De Vil had suggested Harold and Jason Badun, aka Harry and Jace, cousins. They were sons of Cruella's sibling henchmen, Horace and Jasper. The cousins donned their t-shirt and Auradon reject sports coats with patches in places that were ripped or holey as opposed to for fashion purposes. The boys were almost carbon copies of their fathers and much like their fathers there was a significant difference in eight, roughly 18 inches.

The third student, Jay's suggestion, was Selene. She was the daughter of Stromboli, the crazed puppet master that had imprisoned Pinocchio for his own financial gain. She stood

It was a beautiful Sunday morning in Auradon and King Ben stood in front of the school greeting the three new students when all the commotion happened. Ben looked back to see his friends running toward them. He attempted to hide his smile as Jay came to a halt next to him.

"Hey, Feisty," Jay said breathlessly after his run from the boys' dorms to the Beast's statue. A smile plastered on his face. He'd used his nickname for her like he always did on the Isle. Unlike their time on the Isle, this was the first time he'd used it in front of other people.

The girl he spoke to smiled back shyly, as she was used to talking to him in the privacy of her rooftop. She stood there, a head shorter than Jay, in her long sleeved, green shirt, tan pants, and simple beat up, old tennis shoes. Her jet black hair was pulled back, just at the top, leaving the rest of her pin straight hair to hang down her back. She was as he remembered her. Not frilly like the girls in Auradon, but not grungy like the girls of the Isle either. She was simple, practical.

It hadn't been that long since he last saw her before going through the catacombs, maybe a few months. He'd spent his summer in Auradon, with the other Isle transfer students, attending summer school to catch up with their peers. Not that they'd voluntarily go back to their parents and the Isle. But for Jay, those summer months felt like ages. Now it was a new year with new beginnings.

Selene was not used to others watching her every move and right now all eyes were on the both of them. She knew how to keep a low profile and she knew how to fake being evil when someone tried to test her, but she didn't need to be evil. Now that she was in Auradon, she needed to learn how to fake normal.

"Hi, Jay," Selene greeted back.

"Second wish granted," he stated. He felt a surge of energy and power within him that he'd never felt before. He did everything he could to keep himself composed, with only the big smile on his face revealing what was going on within him.

Everyone looked at each other in confusion at Jay's statement. It was an inside joke between the two. Something they'd discussed long ago that Jay never forgot.

Selene could feel her emotions getting the better of her and she did her best to keep the tears from appearing in her eyes.

She could see the limo driver take advantage of the situation to step up to Ben and and steal his attention for a second. He leaned into the Auradon ruler and whispered in his hear. She and Ben locked eyes for a second. Serious eyes meeting serious eyes.

"Thank you," Selene said turning her attention back to Jay, lightly playing with the end of her long sleeve shirt.

She had wanted to get off the Isle of the Lost all her life. Jay was her only friend and she knew he was the one behind her transfer. King Ben had brought over the children of the most infamous villains, not the D-list ones that could have done 10 to 20 years in prison with possible parole.

She hesitated before she took a few steps closer to Jay and wrapped her arms around his waist. She couldn't wait until they were alone like she had originally planned.

Harry scratched his head through is flat cap in confusion. He looked up at his taller cousin, who looked back down at him, exchanging an odd look. They turned their attention back to Selene. Not only was their conversation odd, but no one from the Isle thanked anyone, let alone hugged them.

Evie squealed with excitement and as the others looked on, happy for their friend. Freddie simply watched as the events unfolded, as she wasn't so used to all the affection just yet. At least she stopped shuddering and looking away.

Jay placed his hands at the small of her back. Selene could feel the discomfort just by them being there, but then Jay gave a light squeeze causing Selene to whimper and quickly pull away.

Ben cleared his throat as the driver walked off, causing a distraction before Jay could form a proper question regarding her actions.

After getting everyone's attention he said, "Well, as I was saying. Welcome to Auradon! You see a few familiar faces already. Feel free to come to me or the others if you have any questions," he stated with a big smile on his face. "How about we head inside?"

"Are you okay?" Jay asked Selene in a whisper.

Apparently Ben's distraction wasn't enough. Jay didn't miss the way she coiled away from him and he wasn't going to let it go so easily.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she stated before following Ben and the others.

Ben led the three new students up the walkway where the other students were waiting and showed them the statue of King Beast just as he'd done with the original four transfers, and Freddie when she'd arrived shortly after them.

"That's so cool," Harry said when the statue transformed right in front of their eyes.

"Creepy," Jace stated, leaning over the hedge surrounding the statue, stretching out a lanky arm so he could reach up to poke the statue's foot. Under his fingerless glove covered hand he could feel the cold hard bronze surface. "But so cool."

Carlos blushed to himself as he remembered his first encounter with the statue. His former "lackeys," for lack of a better term, were a bit braver than he was on his first day.

As they entered the main foyer of the dorms, Ben said, "Feel free to hang out the rest of the day. Umm… Carlos, Jay, could you guys help Harry and Jace get settled in?"

"What about Selene?" Jay asked.

He had planned to be with Selene the whole day. He already knew what spots to show her on campus.

"We can do it," Evie pipped in excitedly, referring to herself and the other girls.

"Actually, I wanted to talk to Selene for a bit," Ben confessed.

"Ben, you promised," Jay started.

"I promised you a lot of things, Jay," Ben said. "And I've been good on all of them. You'll still have your Sunday with Selene."

Ben made to move around Jay, but Jay blocked his way.

"Well, where are you going?" Jay asked.

Ben looked at Selene. She knew what Ben knew and looked down in shame. Ben chanced a look at the other students as they were still there watching things play out. He caught Jace and Harry's eyes. They also knew what Ben knew. As any minion would do, they kept their head down, their matching flat caps covering their eyes. You never got involved with someone else's problems unless ordered to.

Taking a step closer to Jay, he said in a low voice, "There was some," Ben cleared his throat, "trouble on the Isle before they left."

Selene could just barely hear what Ben had said and was thankful for his discretion.

"What did he do to you?" Jay asked Selene worriedly in his normal tone.

She wished he'd been more discreet as Ben had been. She couldn't say anything, not in front of everyone. Jay looked at Harry and Jace. They still kept their eyes glued to the floor.

"Wherever you're going, I'm coming with you." Jay stated, looking right at Ben.

He wasn't going anywhere without Selene. Especially not after finding out there was "trouble" on the Isle. He'd helped patched her up before and he was more than willing to do it again.

"It's nothing," Selene whispered.

Ben and Jay stared at each other for a good minute. Jay wasn't going to budge and Ben knew it.

"Alright," Ben stated loud and clear, looking away from his friend. "You guys get situated, catch up, and all that," he said to the majority of the group. "The three of us are gonna go for a walk."

Carlos, Doug, Evie, Freddie, Harry, Jace, and Mal gave them weary glances, but did as told.

"Do you think it was her da-" Evie started to say, but was cut off by Freddie.

"Shh," she said and they all made their way up the stairs.

She tried to be quiet, but the three left standing in the foyer heard her.

"You told them," Selene stated accusingly once they were out of sight.

"Just what they already know," Jay said, not willing to lie to her.

"They know nothing about me."

"Everyone from the Isle knows that everyone else gets abused," Jay defended himself. "I never got specific."

"And your driver told you," Selene said to Ben this time.

"Driver?" Jay asked confused. "How does he know?

"I just want to be sure you're okay," Ben stated ignoring Jay, and leading them down the hall. "It wouldn't be right for a King to ignore the suffering of his people."

Selene let out an exasperated sigh as she and Jay followed Ben. "So, where are we going?" Selene asked.

"Nurse's office," was all he said.

Selene stopped in her tracks, the two boys stopping with her. "It's not that bad," she said nervously.

Selene had never been to a nurse or a doctor. She always patched herself up with the exception of the handful of times Jay did it for her.

"It's just precautionary," Ben looked over to his friend. "Jay, help me out here."

Jay hesitated. History told him she'd be okay. But Ben was the King, his friend, and he was just playing it safe.

"You saw the way she flinched away just by you hugging her," Ben said, trying to get Jay to see reason.

Selene guessed she wasn't as discrete as she thought.

"He squeezed me a little," Selene said trying to get out of going to the nurse. "It was just a little pain and I backed away because I wasn't expecting it. It was a jerk reaction."

Jay let out a sigh. "I know you don't want to," he said to Selene. "But it'll be okay."

Ben smiled at his friend. "And if it isn't bad, you'll be in and out, no problem. Then you two can have the rest of your Sunday all to yourselves."

They approached the nurses office. There was a sign on the door indicating that the residential nurse would be "Back in 15 minutes."

Selene let out a sigh of relief. She wouldn't have to see a nurse.

Despite the sign, Ben proceeded inside. "We'll just use Baymax until Nurse Hamada returns."

"What's a Baymax?" Jay and Selene asked together.

The three students walked into the nurse's office and Ben closed the door behind them. He looked around the empty room. There was a couch to their left, a small desk to their right, and passed the waist high wooden separator were a couple of beds, a medicine cabinet, and what looked like another office.

"Ow?" Ben said, not exactly sure what to do to activate the robot.

Selene gasped and reached for Jay's hand as a white marshmallow man started inflating behind the desk. It was just slightly taller than six feet in height. It stepped out of it's charging station and walked over with a slight waddle to the three teenagers.

"Hello," it greeted. "I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion. I heard a sound of distress. What seems to be the trouble?"

Despite the robotic voice it was in a tone that didn't seem intimidating. It was soothing and friendly.

"That's awesome," Jay said amazed, but still partially blocked Selene to protect her.

"Selene is a new student and I wanted her to be looked over," Ben said to Baymax. "Could you please run a preliminary diagnosis while Nurse Hamada is away?"

"Yes," Baymax answered robotically. "Please come out and I will scan you for injuries."

Selene hesitated.

"I'll be right here," Jay assured her.

 _Sure, now he whispers,_ Selene thought as she stepped away from Jay so the robot could get a good view of her. She braced herself for the scan. She watched as a beam of light roamed over her from head to toe and back again.

"Scan complete. There is breakage of the local capillaries and leakage of red blood cells. Clotting to major and minor abrasions in the Scapula, Thoracic, Lumbar, and Pelvis areas."

"In layman's terms, Baymax?" Ben requested.

"Diagnosis: Cuts and bruises along the back." Baymax took a step toward Selene. "On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"

She chanced a glance at Jay. He simply looked down at his shoes, clearly upset. "Um… five?"

"Does it hurt when I touch it?" Baymax asked attempting to go around Selene to place a hand on her back.

Selene moved out of the way. He looked like a marshmallow, but she wasn't sure how much pressure he'd apply. She'd rather not be in any pain, so she moved away from the robot. Jay caught her by the wrist, hugged her to him doing his best to avoid touching her back, shielding her from Baymax.

It was just then that Nurse Hamada entered the room. She had her hair up in a neat bun and wore a red blouse with simple jeans and running shoes.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, surprised. "Patients. Thank you Baymax, you've been a real help. Please print out your diagnosis and I will take it from here."

Baymax stopped his advances to Selene just as the printer started up.

"So, what's the problem, King Ben?" Nurse Hamada asked as she slipped on her lab coat. "Upset stomach? Fever?"

Ben looked to Selene, still in Jay's arms, but she couldn't find her voice.

"There was an incident," Ben said. "Right, Selene?"

Selene nodded and subconsciously grabbed onto Jay's vest. Nurse Hamada walked over to the printer, placing her reading glasses over her big brown eyes, to read over the print out.

"Bruising," Selene stated. "Maybe some wounds."

Jay tightened his grip on Selene's waist.

"Oh dear," Nurse Hamada said finally looking over to Ben and the two students holding onto each other, clearly worried for her patient. "Come here, dear. You two stay there. You can wait if you wish."

Nurse Hamada led Selene through the wooden divider, clearly keeping the reception and examining areas separate. She sat Selene onto a bed and they disappeared from sight as she pulled a curtain to give them privacy.

"Go on, dear, show me," the boys heard Nurse Hamada instruct. A few seconds later they heard her gasp.

Jay made to move toward Selene, but Ben stopped him. They'd done enough meddling for the time being.

Soon, Nurse Hamada came around the curtain. She didn't have her cheery disposition anymore. It was strict and serious as she gathered a few items from her medicine cabinet. The boys would only hear whispering now, but nothing they could actually make out. They could hear Selene let out gasps of pain as Nurse Hamada cleaned out her wounds.

It was driving Jay mad. Stupid privacy regulations. He was her… he didn't know what he was. Her friend? The closest and only one so far.

"I sent two of my men to pick them up from the Isle this morning," Ben said, deciding this was the best time to fill Jay in. He needed a little distraction from what was happening behind the curtain. "It's a good thing I did, too."

Jay remembered just the one driver that had delivered them to Auradon on their first day.

"They waited on Selene for a while. That's why they were late. They decided to drive over to the Marionette Shop. It took the four of them to stop Stromboli."

"Four?" Jay asked.

"My two men, Jace, and Harry," Ben explained. "Apparently her clothes were ripped to shreds from the whip Stromboli used on her. Some people came by after, I guess they were Anti-Heros. They helped to restrain him while they waited for Selene to clean up and change her clothes."

Jay used both his hands to rub his face as if it would keep the image out of his head.

"It's alright to cry," they heard Baymax say.

Jay thought the robot was talking to him, but when he looked over he could see that Baymax had moved over to the covered bed Selene was laying on. He was too big and the curtain too small to hide his large form.

"Crying is a natural response to pain."

"She's really strong, Jay," Ben praised Selene. "I probably wouldn't be able to move for months if that happened to me."

Another gasp of pain from Selene came from behind the curtain.

"There are others like her," Ben stated. "Others like you and Mal and everyone that came over from the Isle. There has to be something done about this."

"You have been a good girl. Have a lollipop." The two boys could see Baymax holding out a red lollipop out to Selene.

"Thanks," they heard Selene sniffle.

"Are you satisfied with your care?" Baymax asked.

"He can't power down until you tell him, 'Yes,'" Nurse Hamada said.

"Oh… okay," Selene said. "Um, yes, I'm satisfied with my care."

Then, Baymax waddled over to his charging station and began to deflate and power down.

"Now," Nurse Hamada said as she led Selene back to the two boys. "I want you to come back in a couple days so I can check on your back. Here is some Ibuprofin. It'll help with the pain. Instructions are on the bottle. Follow them exactly. I don't think you'll need them, but here you go, just in case." She handed over a small bottle only partially filled.

"Thank you," Selene sniffled again holding the bottle and lollipop in her hand.

"You may go now, but Ben, I want you to stay," Nurse Hamada instructed.

Ben nodded goodbye to the two students and walked to a back office with the nurse.

"That poor child," she said as she secured the door shut. "I've never had to deal with this before, but there are regulations and procedures regarding child abuse. Even if it's simply suspicion, if there is a hair of a fraction that a student is being abused I need to report it. And that girl… "

"It's a different situation here," Ben stated. "She's already away from her father. The students from the Isle of the Lost have the privilege to return, but it's not mandatory. They have permanent residents here at Auradon Prep until they graduate, if they wish."

"Mm," she hummed in agreement. "But I feel there needs to be some repercussions for his actions."

"There'll need to be a full trial," Ben explained. "I'm not too sure Selene will be willing to participate. Besides, Stromboli's already living on the Isle. What other punishment could we implement? Now that Selene's no longer under his care, there's a bigger picture here that I need to address. That's why I brought her in. I need records, evidence, and witnesses for when I figure out how to approach this."

"You've been doing your research, I see."

"I am the King now and the Isle and its inhabitants comes under my jurisdiction."

Nurse Hamada looked at Ben closely. "There are others on the Isle then?"

Ben knew it wasn't a real question. He simply gave her a singular nod and said "Thank you for your time, Nurse Hamada."


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** Hey everyone! Thank you to everyone that favorited and followed this story already. You guys are awesome! And thanks to X Blue Eyed Demon X for the review! This is a short chapter, but I hope you all enjoy it.

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 **Chapter 2**

Jay watched Ben and Nurse Hamada disappear into the back office before he turned to Selene and wiped away the stray tears that were still glistening on her cheeks. Selene breathed out a choked sob and buried her face in Jay's chest. She'd only been in Auradon for an hour and she was already falling apart.

"Everything will be better now," Jay said hugging her closer, careful of Selene's back. "Come on, I'll show you around."

With that Jay and Selene made their way out of the nurse's office. Jay showed her to her dorm that she shared with Freddie, before showing her the campus.

They met up with Carlos, Jace, and Harry in the dining room for lunch.

"So, Harry and Jace told us what happened when they left," Carlos whispered to Jay.

Jay looked over to Selene. She and the cousins were looking at the different selections for lunch in amazement, much like his first meal in Auradon. No spoiled or rotten food.

"Yeah, Ben told me," he admitted, turning his attention back to Carlos. "Said they helped stop Stromboli with some others. I need to thank them somehow."

"Apparently the Anti-heros Club have been getting pretty close," Carlos explained. "They help each other out. I don't think they're looking for a thank you."

"Still," was all Jay said.

Once they all had their food they proceeded outside to find a picnic table to sit at. The dining hall was mainly used during breakfast and dinner. A majority of the Auradon students liked being outside in the sunlight during lunch.

They found Mal, Freddie, Evie, and Doug already situated at a table.

"Hey, guys," Carlos greeted. "Where's Ben?"

"He had some stuff to do," Mal answered.

"Lonnie was telling me about a ball," Evie said excitedly. "Is he planning that?"

"I think you're talking about the Winter Ball," Doug stated. "Ben's been pretty busy. He's asked Audrey and me to head the committee. So I doubt he's working on that stuff. Probably just King stuff."

Jay was digging into his lunch not caring too much about whatever this ball thing was.

Now that Doug had squashed her excitement, Evie threw a glare at Jay. They'd all had a chance to meet Harry and Jace while they were in the nurse's office. But she really wanted to meet Selene. She was upset that Jay hadn't properly introduced them yet.

"Oh for goodness sakes, Jay," she finally said in frustration.

Jay along with most of the table looked up in confusion.

"Hi Selene, I'm Evie," she introduced herself politely. "This is my boyfriend, Doug. I'm sure you recognize Mal, Carlos, and Freddie from school on the Isle."

Jay rolled his eyes and continued to eat.

Selene nervously glanced over at Jay, but he wasn't paying attention. She wasn't used to being the center of attention. Turning to Evie she said, "Um, yeah, I do recognize some of you. Nice to formally meet you all."

Evie didn't ask too many questions, which Selene was thankful for. Evie and the other's promised Jay not to bother Selene too much. Besides, it was her first day. Evie had more opportunities to find out what was going on between the two of them.

After lunch Jay took Selene on a tour around the school.

"You're friends are really nice," Selene stated as Jay studied her class schedule.

"Yeah," he replied, confirming that he, indeed, considered them his friends. "So are yours."

"What friends?" she asked confused.

It didn't matter who was affiliated with the Anti-heros, everyone had to keep up appearances. Selene was still very much alone. Fake it until you make it off the Isle.

Jay looked up from her schedule. "Harry and Jace," he answered. "I thought the Anti-heros were like friends."

Selene shrugged. "More like acquaintances. We secretly acknowledge each other at school and around the Isle, but we don't hang out or anything that friends do. People would think gangs were coming together and that would draw too much attention. So I'm still… the same."

He knew she chose her words carefully. She didn't say "alone," for his sake.

"Well, we're in Auradon now. You'll have more friends than you know what to do with."

They were walking through the hallway when Jay suddenly stopped.

"Bad news, Feisty," he said as Selene rolled her eyes. "We only have one class together."

"Well, you are a year older," she said with a laugh. "Besides, that's one more class we have together than we had in Dragon Hall."

Jay nodded in response and continued through the school as he showed Selene where her classes were located.

"Where are we going now?" Selene asked as they walked out of the school building and walked toward the Tourney field.

"I wanna show you one of my favorite places," he replied as they reached the sidelines of the field. "I'm actually on the Tourney team."

"Tourney?" she asked surprised.

Things have really changed since Jay'd left the Isle.

"Yeah. Have you heard of it?"

Selene was in disbelief. "Yeah, I've read about it. It's a team sport."

She couldn't believe that Jay would willingly be a part of a team. Everyone on the Isle weren't team players. Being a part of a team involved working with people.

"Weird isn't it?" Jay chuckled. "I went from 'There's no team in I,' to 'There's no I in team,'" he said with a genuine smile on his face. "Carlos is on the team, too. That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. We have practices every Monday and Wednesday. I don't usually get done until about dinner time. Then we have games just about every other week, either Friday night or late Saturday morning. This week it's on Friday. Everyone watches the games, but it's not required to go. You should watch me play."

She'd never seen Jay so excited about something before. He was always so nonchalant about things. He was indifferent about her books. Even when things got… interesting… on the Marionette Shop rooftop, he'd never been this expressive, this… happy.

"Just you?" Selene teased, looking down at her beat up tennis shoes.

"You can watch Carlos, Ben, and the rest of the guys too," Jay stated with a laugh. "But I'd rather have you watch me, Feisty."

Selene looked up at Jay. He was looking at her with his signature smirk. He waggled his brows when he caught her eye.

"Same old, Jay," she laughed. "I am not making out with you here, out in the open."

Jay placed his forefinger under her chin to tilt her head up a bit.

"How about a quick kiss then?" he asked. He looked around the field and what he could see of the surrounding area. "We're all alone."

Before she could reply Jay was already leaning forward and placed a chaste kiss on her lips. Jay would have never done that on the Isle. Still the same sly, playboy, but he really had changed as a whole. She could see that.

He pulled away slightly, but Selene's eyes remained closed. "I miss you," she whispered.

Jay was speechless. He was amazed that Selene had only been in Auradon less than a day, a mere six hours actually, and she was already so in tune with her feelings. He couldn't help the smile that appeared on his face and the lightness in him that only came when he was with Selene.

Selene backed away finally opening her eyes, but couldn't look at Jay. She took the silence as a bad sign. She looked down at her hands, thinking she should have kept her mouth shut. She walked away and moved onto the field, her back toward Jay.

He could see the disappointment on her face. He knew he should say something, anything, but nothing came out. He was still getting used to expressing his feelings.

Of course he missed her too. He'd been the one to suggest that she come from the Isle, hadn't he? He'd wanted her there just as much as she did. He just couldn't say it.

"So," Selene said finally finding her voice again. "Tourney, huh?"

Jay cleared his throat. "Um, yeah. I'm actually really good at it."

"Good for you."

Another awkward silence as Jay still stood behind Selene. She felt like her stomach was caving into itself while he tried to think of something to say.

"Maybe we should head back inside," Jay suggested.

"Yeah, I'm sure you have other things you need to do," Selene said. "Homework or something. And I should unpack."

Not that she had much to unpack. Just a small duffle filled with clothes and the few books she owned.

Selene started walking back the way they had arrived. She was about to pass Jay when he reached out to stop her.

"No," he said.

He wasn't trying to get rid of her, just move on from the awkwardness. He finally looked into her eyes. There was no twinkle, no happiness. She had closed herself off.

"I don't have anything to do. Ben made sure all my homework was done," he said with an awkward chuckle. "That was the only way he'd let me have the whole day with you."

"Oh… I thought you… didn't want to…" she trailed off, avoiding eye contact.

"I… umm." He still couldn't say what he felt. "There's one last place I wanted to show you."

"You don't have to. I could just go back to my dorm-"

"No," Jay interrupted. "Come on. One last place."

Selene looked at the school then back at Jay, but she couldn't meet his eyes. So, instead, she kept her focus on his chest. She didn't quite want to leave his side just yet, especially since it seemed that he wasn't ready to leave her either. She knew she was being ridiculous and knew Jay couldn't say things like he missed her. That part of him, clearly hadn't changed. He'd be cocky and make suggestive jokes, but he never talked about his feelings, not seriously anyway.

Finally, after her internal struggle she said, "So, what's the last stop?"

He ended the campus tour with the library. It was much bigger than the one in Dragon Hall and cleaner. And although it was a Sunday there were a few students studying.

Selene was in awe as she walked through the entrance.

"I figured you'd want to see this," Jay said quietly behind her.

She turned to finally look him in the eyes again. "You know all my weaknesses."

"Go on," he encouraged, motioning for her to go through the aisles of books.

Selene picked out a book and they found the most deserted spot, where they spent most of the afternoon in the library, undisturbed and content with the silence. Selene pulled half of her long, inky black hair back to keep it out of her eyes as she always did when reading a book. It was almost like being on the rooftop of the Marionette Shop. Selene was content reading, and after a while, Jay got over his fumble on the Tourney field and placed his arm over Selene's shoulder, happy to hold her in his arms again.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note:** Hey everyone! I was gonna over the weekend, but I got distracted with all the promos for Descendants 2. I'm so excited! Unfortunately, work's been so busy and I've kind of had writer's block, but at least I have the next few chapters and hopefully the new movie will give me some inspiration. This chapter is kind of a long filler, but I hope you guys like it. On to the next!

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

Monday morning came too soon for the new Auradon students. Selene and Freddie got up to get ready, mostly in silence. Selene didn't mind as she liked the silence, preferred it actually. Freddie didn't mind either as she usually kept to herself. They didn't need small talk as they got ready for class.

"Hey!" came a yell from down the hall as they headed down to breakfast.

The two roommates turned around to see Jay jogging up to them.

Freddie snorted. "Hey, Romeo," she said continuing to the dining room, not caring if they were following along behind her. She knew he had called out only for Selene anyway.

Selene let out a light giggle at Freddie's greeting. "Hey," she said back to Jay.

Without another word they continued after Freddie, at a slower pace. Jay noticed Selene's backpack hanging from her folded hands in front of her.

"Maybe I should have told you to put your stuff in your locker yesterday," Jay stated, taking the backpack from Selene and slinging it over his shoulder.

"It's alright," she replied reaching for the backpack. "It's not heavy."

"First class is Remedial Goodness," Jay changed the subject, blocking her advances to grab her bag. "You probably don't need any of this stuff for that class anyway."

They were approaching the wooden doors leading to the dining hall. Jay picked up his pace a little and opened the door for her to enter first.

Selene knew she overreacted on the field the day before. She mentally kicked herself for not realizing it earlier. Jay wasn't much for talking, he spoke louder with his actions.

They entered the dining room and fell in line to get their breakfast.

"Good morning," came the cheery greeting from the female standing in front of Jay.

"Hey," Jay greeted back. "Lonnie, this is Selene. Selene, this is Lonnie."

Lonnie looked up past Jay and her eyes lit up at meeting the new girl. Evie had told all of their friends about Jay's mystery girl from the Isle and Lonnie was just as excited to meet her as Evie was.

"Welcome to Auradon," Lonnie said. "I'm sure Jay's doing his best to make the transition easy on you."

Still not accustomed to speaking freely with anyone, besides Jay, Selene just chuckled awkwardly. Not knowing exactly what Jay's friends knew about her, didn't help her nerves much either.

"Uh… yeah. Jay showed me most of the campus yesterday," Selene replied.

"I'm sure the week will go by real fast," Lonnie said as they took their seat with their friends. "We have a lot of fun here. And everyone looks forward to the Tourney games. It's like our little reward for going to school."

Selene learned really quick that Lonnie loved talking to people. She didn't think Lonnie was capable of small talk. She had full blown conversations.

"We should have warned you about Lonnie," Mal said apologetically to her new classmates.

"Man, she can talk," Jace said scratching his head. "I've never heard anyone talk so much."

The Isle kids were done with breakfast and were now walking to Remedial Goodness class. As soon as they entered the classroom, Fairy Godmother was already set up in the front of the room.

"Good morning, children," she greeted equally as cheery as Lonnie would have, maybe a little more so.

"If you thought Lonnie was perky," Jay whispered to Selene causing her to giggle.

Evie and Mal took their seat at the usual desk they shared together and Freddie took hers behind Evie. Carlos slipped into his seat just across the walkway from Mal. Normally, Jay sat next to him, but he pulled out a seat for Selene right behind Carlos and took the seat next to her instead. Harry looked up at his cousin, not too sure who should sit with Carlos. Jace made the first move and slowly made his way to the seat next to Freddie and sat down. Harry gave his tall cousin a questioning look as he walked to the empty seat next to Carlos. Jace simply shrugged to his cousin and turned to face Fairy Godmother.

"I'm so glad to see everyone this morning," Fairy Godmother said. "And I would like to apologize to the new students. I would have been honored to greet you upon your arrival yesterday, however there was a Fairy council meeting in Fairy Vale and wasn't able to be here."

Fairy Godmother had a very sincere, yet slightly overdramatic frown on her face, which made Selene giggle.

"You'll get used to it," she heard Carlos say to Harry.

"But we're all here now and I'd like to formally introduce myself. I am Fairy Godmother, Headmistress, and your teacher for Remedial Goodness," she introduced herself. "This will be a split class with the 101s and the 102s, but I think you all will keep up just fine."

Evie chose that moment to raise her hand. "Is that why there are questions we already went over on the board?" she asked after Fairy Godmother called on her.

Mal, Carlos, and Jay looked to the chalkboard and noticed the same questions Fairy Godmother had asked on their first day of class.

"I thought we could go over a refresher since we have so many new students today," Fairy Godmother explained. "So, let's get started. How about we have just the new students answer these questions?"

She walked over to the chalkboard, pointer in hand, and asked, "If someone hands you a crying baby," she read off the board just as dramatically as the original four remembered on their first day. "Do you, A, curse it? B, lock it in a tower? C, give it a bottle? Or D, carve out its heart?"

Jace looked around, attempting to shrink as small as his lanky frame would allow him. He didn't know the answer and hoped someone else would raise their hand and answer first. Harry looked to Carlos for help, but his friend just laughed in response. Selene looked over at Jay. He simply raised a brow in response. Although she knew there could have been multiple, equally good solutions for this questions, given her choices, she knew Fairy Godmother was looking for answer C.

"Harold," Fairy Godmother called on Harry, using his given name. "How about you give it a try? If someone hands you a crying baby, what would you do?"

"Panic," Harry answered honestly causing everyone to laugh and a light blush to appear on his round cheeks.

"Give it to Yen Sid and have him deal with it," Jace added, knowing his old science teacher would know more about what to do with a crying baby than he would.

"Well," Fairy Godmother considered. "That would be the normal reaction for anyone your age, but why don't you choose one of these options?"

Harry concentrated really hard on the questions. "Uh… what's in the bottle?" he asked.

"Milk," was the excited reply from their headmistress. She could sense that her young student would pick the correct answer on his first try.

"Then, I guess… C?" he answered still unsure if answer B could possibly be the better answer. If it's in a tower it can't do anything it's not supposed to, right?

Carlos gave Harry a celebratory punch in the arm. "Good job, man," he said.

"Yes, good job indeed," Fairy Godmother praised. "Next question: You find a vial of poison. Do you, A, put it in the king's wine? B, paint it on an apple," Freddie and the new students giggled, throwing a glance at Evie, who simply blushed. "Or C, turn it over to the proper authorities? Selene, why don't you try answering this one."

"C. Turn it over to the proper authorities," she answered quickly. She didn't like being called on in class even more than being around people and having to converse with them.

"Yes, very good," Fairy Godmother said excitedly.

Jay looked over at Selene with a smile. She didn't look back at him, just kept her eyes on her desk, but he enjoyed seeing the light blush on her cheeks.

When class ended, the Isle kids exited the classroom, heading to their next class.

"You guys were awesome in there," Carlos said.

"I guess Anti-hero Club meetings are kind of like Remedial Goodness class," Jace said.

Their small group of eight slowly trickled down as everyone went on to their next class. Jay and Selene walked up to her science class and he handed her notebook over.

"I guess I leave you here," Jay said. "Now, I gotta run."

"Where's your class?" Selene asked, not sure if he was being literal or figurative.

He scratched the back of his neck. "Uh... back that way," he said. "And two stories up. I'll see you on break," he yelled to her as he ran back where he came from and turned to disappear up a staircase.

Selene couldn't help the smile on her face as she took an empty seat. It eased her nerves a bit having Jay around and when he did thoughtful things like that, it gave her butterflies in her stomach.

The rest of the day continued uneventfully. During their morning and lunch break Jace and Harry stuck to Carlos's side as they usually did on the Isle. Carlos did his best trying to entertain them in a way, sharing things he'd learned from science class or showing them the different things he'd been tinkering with.

Jay did his best to make sure Selene wasn't alone during breaks. They'd done that enough on the Isle and his friends knew there was something going on between the two, even though he never admitted it, so there was no point hiding their friendship.

Unfortunately for Jay, Selene wanted to stay in the library during break. He stayed by her side during morning break, but he refused to have both of them miss lunch.

"You can read outside," he'd reasoned.

She didn't argue that she liked the quiet of the library and outside had too many distractions. He clearly wanted to spend time with her and she wanted time with him. So, she allowed herself social time with him and his friends.

They met up with Jace, Lonnie, Mal, Carlos, Evie, and Harry and shared a picnic table with them for lunch.

"Everyone's so smiley," Jace commented during lunch.

"Smiles are contagious and they make you feel better," Lonnie stated and proceeded to smile directly at Jace to prove her point.

In return, Jace let a small smile slip and a slight blush color his cheeks. No one had ever smiled at him, let alone a girl. He knew it was a generic smile, but she had been right, it did make him feel better.

Harry snorted a laugh at his cousin. "Everyone can smile until their faces fall off," he said. "As long as I keep getting fed like this, I'm good." He ended his statement by taking a big bite from his sandwich.

"What about you, Selene?" Lonnie asked. "Anything weird you notice about Auradon. It's been really interesting hearing about the Isle from Mal, Evie, and everyone. It really gives me perspective on how much we take for granted here."

"Do you ever breath when you talk, Lonnie?" Carlos teased.

She proceeded to throw a chip at him which Jay caught effortlessly and placed it in his mouth to eat.

"No sense wasting good food," he said while chewing.

"Careful," Selene warned.

"Don't worry about my metabolism," Jay replied, referring to a previous conversation they had on the Isle. "It's fine for now. See," he said flexing his bicep.

Selene snorted, causing Jay to smile. She'd gotten over those muscles long ago.

Everyone watched the small exchange. A mix of confusion and happiness appearing on each of their friends' faces.

Lonnie cleared her throat. "So, Selene, any takes on Auradon?" she reiterated her original question.

"Huh?" Selene asked snapping out of her trance and looking away from Jay. "Oh uh… I don't know. It just seems like a place I'd read about in my books. Definitely different from the Isle, but I probably haven't picked out stuff that these guys haven't."

"Oh! So, you like reading," Lonnie stated. "What other stuff do you like to do?" She stared at Selene with big, questioning eyes, her face had its usual excited expression in place.

Selene looked around the table, everyone else, aside from Harry and Jace, we're looking at her intently, waiting for an answer. Jay had the decency to look embarrassed at his friends and gave her an apologetic look. Nonetheless, Selene felt like a deer in headlights.

"Uhh," she started uncomfortably. "Umm… not much else. I mainly just read and do housework."

"Are you interested in fashion?" Evie asked.

Selene looked at Evie's fashion forward outfit and Lonnie's Auradon trendy one before looking down at her own simple garb, a light green t-shirt with tan colored skinny jeans. She was definitely not into fashion.

"What about art?" Mal asked next. "Ben got me to sign up for an art class and I haven't regretted it yet."

"No, I'm not really-" Selene started to say before Carlos cut her off.

"Are you into science? Or technology?" he asked holding up his Auradon appointed phone.

Selene let out an awkward chuckle. Jay could see she was doing her best to be polite, but couldn't help feeling uncomfortable with all the attention. Even Jace turned his attention to her now, curious.

"Selene is always reading," Harry stated thoughtfully. "Even at Anti-hero meetings, always has her head in a book. There isn't anything to do on the Isle anyway. Now that we're all trying to be good, there's even less to do."

Selene threw Harry a grateful smile which he returned. Smiles really were contagious.

After school the three new Isle kids didn't have their respective buddy around. Carlos and Jay had tourney practice and wouldn't be done for the next few hours.

Selene took this time to hide away in her dorm. She realized the library in Auradon had more students occupying tables than there were on the Isle. It was still quiet, it was a library after all, but she really preferred to be alone. Luckily for her, Freddie was nowhere to be found when she entered the dormitory.

That's where Jay found her after practice.

"There you are," Jay said when he opened the door unannounced.

"Geez Jay," she said clutching her book to her chest. She was reading a book from the suspense section of the library and he had startled her. "Knock much?"

Jay chuckled to himself. "Sorry, still getting used to all this being good and having manners stuff."

Selene shook her head, letting out a laugh. "No, it's fine. You just scared me a little. This book's intense."

"Would you jump into it if you could?" Jay asked a small smile playing at his lips, thinking back to a time on the Isle.

She looked into Jay's eyes thinking back on the memory, which led to their first kiss. She looked away, a light blush forming at the thought. It really had been a long time.

"Maybe not this one," she finally answered softly, throwing the book onto her bed and walking towards Jay. "But I can't go into my books, anyway. My genie hasn't granted that wish yet." Selene had a mischievous smile on her face.

"Well, we can't have that, can we?" Jay said in a dramatic tone, making his way to the center of the room. He turned to look at her and crossed his arms, thinking it made him look powerful. "What does my mistress wish for?"

Jay relished in the giggle that slipped through her lips at his overdramatics. That familiar twinkle in her eyes when they asked their silly questions was back. Something he hadn't seen and had missed for so long.

Simultaneously, there was that surge of energy Jay felt when Selene had first arrived in Auradon. Was this the feeling of love that people here talked about? Romantic love, that is, not the kind of love he assumed he had for his friends. He didn't have much time to think on it. He had a wish to grant.

"Oh, my dear genie," she said attempting to be as dramatic as Jay was. She rested her hands on Jay's folded forearms with a pleading look on her face. "I wish for the ability to enter and exit my books at will, so I may experience the stories first hand."

There it was again, that energy and power. It coursed through Jay, in his blood, bones, and his skin. It made his head foggy. His playful smile was now gone and the muscles in his arms relaxed.

"Your wish is my command," Jay said in a trance.

Selene was a bit startled at the change in tone, taking a step back. A nervous smile playing at her lips as she wasn't sure if he were still joking around with her. He held out his hands in front of him and the book Selene had been reading floated to him from her bed. She let out a gasp in surprise.

"Jay?" she called out lightly, but he didn't respond.

The book opened to a random page on it's own accord, in the palm of Jay's hands. Soon there was a ruckus as other books in the room began to move about, before floating in midair, opening where they floated.

Selene didn't have an ounce of magical lineage in her, but she could have sworn she could almost feel the magic in the air. Soon, it wasn't just the books floating.

 _Are those letters? And words?_ Selene thought to herself.

Yes, it was. Even the illustrations from the books were being pulled from their pages to collect above the one in Jay's hands. They swirled around each other before warping together. It wasn't long before the distorted pictures and words formed an illusion. Selene could clearly see herself standing in the middle of her dorm room.

"All my mistress must do to enter," Jay continued, still in a trance, "is to request entrance."

The illusion of Selene floating above the open book placed a book of her own on the ground. She removed a necklace she wore, with what looked like a medallion, and placed it on the open pages.

" _I request to enter_ ," she said, a light echo resonating from the illusion.

She proceeded to lift the medallion from the book, creating a portal. She stepped through and the image distorted once again to reveal Selene in a garden of flowers made of jewels of different shapes and colors. She knew this garden well as she'd read about it while on the Isle.

"Once my mistress chooses to return home, she may call forth another portal," Jay said.

The illusion of Selene approached a tree. She seemed to be assessing a large tree hollow. Stepping back she said, " _Take me home._ "

The medallion, back around her neck, glowed red as the hollow turned into another portal. As she stepped through, the illusion distorted again, before showing Selene picking up her book from the floor of her dorm room. One last time the image of Selene in her dorm warped before slowly turning into the talisman she'd just seen, slowly spinning in midair.

Selene hesitated for a moment. All of this was a bit disturbing. But she wanted to see for herself if all this was real. She took a step forward and reached out for the talisman. Once her hand was firmly grasped around it Jay snapped the book shut with both hands. As he dropped his arms to his side all the floating books suddenly dropped to the ground and Selene jumped back.

"Ow!" Jay exclaimed as the hardcover book he had just been holding fell onto his foot. "What was that for?"

Selene could only gape at him, the talisman sandwiched between her hands in front of her.

The pain in Jay's foot quickly went away. He bent down to grab the book and looked at it curiously. "Wasn't this on your bed?" he asked. Looking up at Selene when she didn't answer, he noticed the bewildered look on her face. "Selene, you okay?"

Her mouth snapped shut and she simply shook her head no. She was definitely not okay.

"What's wrong?" Jay asked, concerned. All thoughts of the book and it landing on his foot just a minute earlier, out the window.

She was gaping again. "I…" she finally got out. "I… don't know."

"Uh, okay," he replied confused.

"Y-you… you…" she stuttered. She was freaking out. "You… did magic."

"What?" Jay said with a laugh. "No way. I've never done magic. I don't even know how."

Selene simply nodded her head vigorously. She looked scared and concerned for the part genie standing in front of her. "You did," she said with urgency. "You started talking weird and-and the book came floating to you. Then the other books started floating," she said pointing to the other books around the room, haphazardly laying on the floor. "And words and pictures were moving from the books to you. And then it showed me going into a book!"

She had worked herself up into a frenzy.

"I don't believe it," Jay said, frightened at the situation and the fact that he couldn't remember. What else could he have done without knowing.

"Well, believe it," Selene said. "Look at the books on the floor. They weren't there before. And like you said, that book," she said pointing the one still in his hands, "was on my bed. It floated to you. And…" she trailed off, suddenly remembering what she was holding, and held out her hand to reveal the talisman. "And what about this?"

Jay stepped up to her and placed his hand under hers. They both leaned in to get a better look at it. The pendant was small enough to be worn inconspicuously, if she chose. In the center was a round cut emerald, but the outside border was made of silver. A gold cobra with rubies for eyes weaved it's way around the silver border.

"My dad's cobra," Jay said absentmindedly. He reached for the talisman and flipped it over to see the mirror image. He held it up to the window. The light from the setting sun shown through the emerald to reveal a picture. "Hey, look at that."

Selene stood next to Jay to look at the emerald. She saw what looked like a hand stretched out, palm side down. There were strings tied to the tips of each finger and hung down.

"The puppet master," Selene whispered. She had grown up with a more sinister version hung up in her living room.

Jay handed the talisman back to her. "Try it."

"What?" she asked in shock.

"Try it. See if you can actually do it." Jay handed the book to her as well. He was genuinely curious.

Selene reached for the book. It was the book that she had been reading when Jay barged into the room. The one that had caused her to be startled by Jay's abrupt entrance.

"If this works," she said hesitant, "I don't want to go into this one. At least not yet."

She walked over to her bed and placed the book there before picking up a large storybook laying on the floor. It was filled with short stories, with beautiful illustrations. She turned to a random page, not bothering to see what story it had opened to. Just as she had seen the illusion do, she placed the open book in the middle of the floor. Jay stood behind and watched as she placed the talisman onto a page and said, "I request to enter."

The talisman glowed green before she stood, bringing it with her. She had successfully created the portal. She took a step back next to Jay to take a better look at it. The portal was a swirl of green and yellow that seemed to glow gold on the outer edge.

"It worked," they said together. Selene stared in wonderment as Jay stood there dumbfounded.

Taking a deep breath Selene placed the medallion around her neck and took a step forward with the intention of walking through the portal.

"No, don't," Jay said changing his mind. He didn't know what was on the other side.

He rushed forward and reached out to grab her arm, but Selene lost her balance. She tripped over the threshold and into the portal, bringing Jay in with her.

"Ahhh!" they screamed as they began their free fall into Selene's storybook.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note:** Posting the next chapter because I share a birthday with JK Rowling, Harry Potter, and the first Descendants movie (edit: and Joey Richter! How'd I forget about him?). That's a good enough reason right? This is a long chapter. And to the guest that asked about a jealous Jay... well here's a little bit. There will definitely be more. Enjoy you guys!

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

As they fell within the portal, Selene could feel a force pulling them apart. Jay held on as tight as he could, but he was losing his grip and couldn't reach over with his other hand. Finally, Jay couldn't hold on any longer and Selene was pulled away from him.

"Selene!" he called after her.

"No, Jay!" she screamed, but he soon disappeared from her sight. "What did I do?" she asked herself.

The same force of the portal that pulled her away from Jay was starting to slow her fall. She felt like she was in space, with zero gravity, unable to bring herself to an upright position.

 _This must be what Alice felt like falling down that rabbit hole,_ Selene thought to herself.

Finally taking the time to look around, she noticed everything was black with green and yellow swirls all around her. There was no indication of where was up and where was down.

Suddenly in a blink of an eye, there was a flash, and she was dropped onto a soft surface.

Selene let out a gasp from the short drop and the light pain from her wounds on her back. She was currently lying in a bed, one that was far larger than her bed in Auradon. There was sunlight bouncing on the ceiling above her, which didn't look like her dorm room ceiling. And she was covered with a thick, silky comforter.

 _What in the world?_ she thought.

As soon as the thought left her mind, exhaustion overtook her. She figured she had dreamed it all. She had dreams of falling and woke up with a start on the Isle, many times. But the large luxurious bed? Maybe it was Ben's? She could deal with all this when she woke up.

A second later the doors of the room burst open and Selene, despite her sudden exhaustion, sat up as fast as a bullet. It reminded her of when her father would barge into her room when she was younger, whip in hand. The only reason he did it was because she had done something wrong and he was going to punish her.

She looked around, but thankfully didn't see her father. There was, however, a man standing in the doorway who seemed to be just as angry as Stromboli would be. He stood at a similar height and equally round around the belly as her father. Stromboli's naturally jet black hair, just like her own, was currently lightly peppered with some white, his beard included. However, this man was all silver and white. Possibly from stress or genetics considering his middle aged features. Also unlike her father, this man was dressed in luxurious clothes and gold jewelry, including a golden crown. Clearly a king.

She really was inside one of her books.

"Still fast asleep!" he roared. "''Tis mid day!" He strolled through the aisle.

Selene could see now that she wasn't the only one sleeping. There were about a dozen other beds all occupied with a sleep deprived maidens stirring from the commotion of the older man.

 _What is this? A harem?_ she thought to herself.

No, the decorations of the room wasn't what you would normally fine in the Middle East region like Jay's ancestors would have.

 _If I'm really in the book, I have to figure out which story._

The older man, the King, stopped at the foot of her bed. He bent over and picked up a pair of worn out shoes that looked as if they had once been beautiful when they were new.

"Tattered dancing shoes," he said this time in a low voice.

His face started to turn red in anger and promptly marched through the open double doors that led to an adjacent room. Selene could hear the King speaking, but couldn't make out any words. It seemed that there were a few things that fell onto the floor before a young man came tumbling through the doorway.

"Guards!" the King called. "We shall have another execution."

Selene sat in shock and fear. What exactly had he done to deserve to die?

Still angry the King continued his shouting, this time to the girls in the room. Selene looked around and noticed there were exactly a dozen girls, including herself, sitting in their beds. All of which looked as tired as she felt, but with none of the fear. They'd obviously heard all this before.

Selene still didn't know what story this was. The book held at least twenty different short stories. She'd gone through and read the ones she thought were more interesting like _Rumplestiltskin_ and _Goldilocks and the Three Bears_. She left stories like _The Emperor's New Clothes_ and _Princess and the Pea_ for a later time.

 _This must be one of the ones I hadn't read yet,_ she thought to herself.

It wasn't long before the King had ordered all his daughters to get up and ready for the day. It was then that Selene looked down and noticed the talisman was still around her neck, but she was not in her own clothes. She was dressed in a nightgown just like the other princesses.

 _Well, I'm already dressed the part,_ she thought. _I might as well act it until I can find Jay._

In another part of the kingdom, the portal had dropped Jay in the middle of the woods. Unfortunately, he wasn't dropped onto something soft like a bed or even a luscious bush. Jay had landed in the middle of a clearing.

"Aaa!" Jay exclaimed clutching at his left shoulder.

Although it had felt like he was falling forever, it had felt like he'd only been dropped an inch or two above the ground. He'd landed on his back, but the light fall had resulted in excruciating pain on his shoulder.

He couldn't think about that right now. He had to get up and find Selene.

The woods reminded him of the trees that surrounded Auradon. He'd ventured off into the small woods there sometimes and luckily, never got lost within them. He had a pretty good sense of direction, but here he didn't know where he was.

He sat up, still clutching his aching shoulder, and stood up. He noticed his normal clothes were replaced with someone else's. His practice jersey was nowhere to be found. Instead he wore a light long sleeved shirt and thick leather gloves. At least his pants and shoes were more normal, although still not his.

Looking around, Jay couldn't see any sign of civilization in sight. He walked over to one end of the clearing attempting to look beyond the trees. He walked around the perimeter stopping every few feet to look and listen for any indication that that was the way to civilization or anything telling him to absolutely not go in that direction. When he couldn't figure out which way to go, he looked up at the trees.

"I need to go higher," he said to himself.

He found an easy tree to climb and ascended with some struggle being that his shoulder was still mysteriously in pain. After a few minutes of painful climbing he'd stopped at a branch to rest. Luckily for him, the woods weren't so thick and he could see smoke working it's way through the trees, up into the sky. Jay decided he didn't need to see anymore and to just climb back down to head toward the smoke. Smoke meant some type of civilization. At least he'd have a better idea of where he was, so then maybe he could find Selene and possibly figure out how to get home.

Jay walked as fast as he could, minding the pain in his shoulder.

"Why does it hurt so bad?" he complained as he walked.

Soon a small cottage came to view between the trees causing a sigh of relief in Jay. He picked up his speed a bit, cradling his left arm with his right so as to not move his shoulder too much. Once he got to the cottage he knocked on the front door.

"Hello," he called out to whoever was inside. "Is anyone home? I-I need some help."

Jay saw some movement through his peripheral vision and he looked over to the window. Someone had just been looking out to him, but he hadn't seen who it was. There was some shuffling from within before the door opened revealing an elderly woman.

"What has caused a young soldier to come so far from the town?" the elder woman asked.

 _Soldier?_ he thought looking down at his clothes.

"Uh, I… I'm lost," Jay said. "Could you direct me to the town?"

The old woman looked Jay up and down. "You are injured," she said, noticing Jay still clutching onto his shoulder.

"Yes. My shoulders in a lot of pain, but it's not too bad."

She motioned him to follow her into the small cottage.

"I really need to go. I have something important to do," Jay said, following her in and closing the door behind him.

The cottage was small and simple. The front door led to the living room and kitchen which was no bigger than his dorm room in Auradon. The old woman clearly lived alone as she had one arm chair near the fireplace, where a fire was going to heat up a kettle. The dining table was a small one with a single chair just for the woman. Yes, she was all alone in these woods.

"Off to discover where the princesses disappear to?" she asked as she rummaged through some linen.

 _Princesses?_ _If this is the main plot of the story, I should look there._

Jay didn't answer. He'd passed a mirror, only to see he looked horrible. Considering he fell from a portal, climbed halfway up a tree, and had been walking through the woods with a wounded shoulder, yeah, he'd look horrible. But that didn't matter right now.

"Those devious princesses do not care of the consequences of their actions," she said without waiting for Jay to answer. "Too many young men have lost their life to unlock the mystery."

That got Jay's attention. "Lost their life?" he asked.

The old woman turned to him with a simple piece of linen in her hand. "The King has assured that those who have not discovered the destination of his young daughters in three days time, will be executed."

She walked over to Jay and created a simple sling to relieve his wounded shoulder.

"Thank you," Jay said, happily accepting the sling.

"Do not trust the princesses," the old woman said. "Beautiful and kind, they are. But be weary of anything they offer you. If a princess presents you with the finest wine, do not drink it. If she presents you with a late night dessert, do not eat it. Simply thank her, throw it away once she has left, and pretend to fall fast asleep." She led Jay back to the entrance, carrying a cloak with her. "Take this. Once you place this on, you will be invisible to anyone you pass. You will be able to follow the princesses without their knowledge."

"Oh," Jay said looking down at the cloak she'd handed him. It looked like a simple cloak, but this was a story, where anything was possible. "Thank you. Thank you, so much."

The old woman directed Jay toward the town square and he continued on his journey.

Once in town he'd noticed the King's scroll in the center of the square, for all to see. Apparently there were twelve princesses that kept sneaking off into the night.

"Twelve?" Jay said, letting out a long whistle. "Right on, King."

The twelve princesses would go out dancing every night, even though the King kept their doors and windows locked. The King was offering any suitor a chance to any of his daughter's hand in marriage, if he figured out where and how they were leaving their bedroom. They were given three nights to figure it out and if they didn't, it was off with their heads.

"That's a little extreme," Jay stated.

"Best not to try," came a man's voice behind him.

Jay turned around to see an older man, about thirty years old or so. "Excuse me?"

"Scores of men have tried and failed," the man said before moving on.

 _But what if Selene's there,_ Jay thought to himself.

The sun was starting to set, so Jay sped walked toward the large castle, just beyond the square. By the time he reached the castle the sun had fully set and the castle was illuminated with the glowing light of candles. The guards at the entrance to the grounds stopped Jay without a word.

"Uhh… I'm here to help the King figure out where the princesses are going," Jay stated.

One guard let out a chuckle. Another fool and another execution. The other called for a third guard, who brought Jay into the castle and straight to the King. Jay was led to a large study where the King sat behind a desk in an ornate armchair. The King welcomed Jay, in a jovial manner as he'd greeted all the other men that came and failed. It didn't matter if the King thought they could figure out the big mystery or not, he needed to instill some encouragement in the hopes that they would.

"Guard!" he called. "Bring this young man to the kitchens. The princesses and I have finished our meal, but the night is still young. The cook shall make you a dinner before going off to bed."

"Thank you, your majesty," Jay said.

As Jay sat in the kitchens eating his dinner, Selene sat in the bedroom with the other eleven princesses. They were excited that they'd be able to get away with another night of dancing without any trouble from outsiders.

The short day that Selene was there, she'd found out that the twelve princesses had been sneaking away somewhere to go dancing. She hadn't found out just yet how they escaped their locked room or why they had to sneak away at all.

"I can't wait to see my prince tonight," one of the princesses said excitedly.

Apparently, they'd been sneaking off to see twelve princes. If they were royalty, Selene didn't understand why they couldn't just tell their father and have a wedding planned. Maybe they just liked being disobedient. She could understand that, as everyone on the Isle were like that.

"Oh, yes," said another princess. "And my prince is absolutely dreamy."

"Not as handsome as mine," said yet another, as she brushed her hair.

"And the best part is there is no one to stand in our way tonight."

The one thing Selene couldn't figure out was how to get out of the castle to find Jay. She had searched the castle, getting lost more than a few times, in the hopes that he was there as opposed to outside in the village. But he was nowhere to be found. She'd hoped finding out how they snuck out of their room will help her to sneak out the next morning.

Selene was in bed, ready to sleep, or at least pretending that she was about to go to sleep as it seems, when the King entered, from the adjacent guest room, to introduce the new young man that hoped to discover the princess' secret. The princesses were clearly upset with the intruder. They stood in the doorway separating the two bedrooms, blocking Selene's view from her bed.

"This shall be your quarters," the King said before he exited to his own bedroom.

Jay was left in his guest room, with angry princesses staring daggers at him behind the facade of polite smiles. He scanned the princesses faces, none of them were Selene.

One princess, a beautiful one at that, Jay observed, stepped up as the others disperse into their room. She didn't seem as angry as the others.

"And what is your name, kind sir," she asked with a pleasant smile in place.

No use in lying. "My name's Jay, your highness," he introduced himself.

Selene gasped and sat up in her bed to get a better look into the room. Jay heard the gasp and looked passed the princess in front of him. There in one of the beds was Selene. He was shocked and excited to find her. Selene on the other hand was nervous. If he didn't figure out where the princesses went in three nights, he'd die.

"I shall have the kitchens send you some supper," the princess said.

"Your father was kind enough to ask them to cook something up for me," Jay said. "I've just come from the kitchens."

"Well then, some wine." Without another word the princess turned to get Jay some wine mixed with a sleeping draught. The same one she'd used for the men before him.

Selene knew about the wine. She looked around at the other princesses. They were either preoccupied with their own thing or watching their sister deal with the wine and potion. Selene caught Jay's eye and slightly shook her head, hoping he'd understand that she didn't want him to drink the wine. Jay simply gave her a reassuring smile and gave her a quick nod.

"Special wine, for our special guest," the princess said handing Jay an ornate goblet filled with red wine.

"Thank you," he said accepting the wine.

"We're off to bed now," informed the princess. "Enjoy your night."

"Goodnight, princess," he said with a polite smile, raising his glass to her. "Goodnight, princesses," he repeated addressing the others.

"Goodnight, kind sir," they chorused together.

Jay retreated to his room, dumped the wine out of sight of the princesses, and layed in bed for a few minutes before letting out fake snores for the girls to hear.

The princesses giggled at the sound of Jay snoring.

"Let us get ready to meet our princes," one of the sisters said.

Selene got ready with them dressing in beautiful dresses and their new dancing shoes. Once they were ready, they check to be sure Jay was still fast asleep. He continued to lay in his bed and fake snore, which satisfied the princesses. One of them, the oldest Selene had concluded, walked up to her bed and clapped her hands twice. Immediately her bed had floated up to the ceiling and a set of stairs, descending beneath their room, had magically appeared.

 _So that's how they've been leaving,_ Selene thought. _The locked doors and windows did nothing because they didn't need to use them._

"Come on," the eldest said. "Our princes are waiting for us."

At hearing that, Jay grabbed his cloak and walked up to the adjoining door. There, he saw the princesses dressed up in their ball gowns, going down a set of stairs that weren't there before. Selene was dressed up as the other princesses were. He'd never seen Selene in a dress before. She was in a moss green, ball gown. It wasn't the kind of dress that he'd seen on the Isle nor in Auradon. Too old school and puffy for his liking, but on Selene, he kind of liked it.

He could see her fussing with her long sleeves, something she'd always do when she was nervous.

He put on his cloak and checked himself in the mirror. Nothing. He couldn't see himself. Excited he walked up to Selene. He knew she wouldn't rat him out, but he decided to keep quiet regardless.

Before she headed down the stairs, she she picked up the heavy skirt so she could move the small train out of the way.

 _Really, how do these girls move in this thing?_ she complained to herself.

She turned around and looked back, right through the invisible Jay, and to his guest room.

 _Did he drink the wine? I thought he understood._ She thought before turning back to the staircase. _He has three nights to figure this out._ _I'll tell him all about it tomorrow._

As the girls made their way down the stairs, one by one, each princess entered a trance-like state.

Jay noticed it was a long staircase as followed behind, unusually long.

 _Where does this go?_ Jay asked himself.

About halfway down, Jay got a little too close and stepped on Selene's dress. It startled her a bit, snapping her out of her trance. She looked back, but didn't see anything. She looked down at her dress and the steps of the staircase, but couldn't figure out what that tug on her dress was. It wasn't long before a trance overtook her again. Jay saw the change in her eyes before she turned to continue down the stairs.

As they got closer to the bottom, Jay could see a grove of trees, but they were white like they were covered in glittery snow. Although Jay was under his cloak, he didn't feel the cold chill that would have come with snow. When he got closer he noticed it wasn't snow, the leaves on the trees were silver. He took a closer look. The silver leaves didn't die in his hands and disappear like Selene had explained happened in one of her other books. He broke off a branch and stuffed it in his pocket. He hoped it would still be there when he got back to Auradon. After a few steps, he broke off another branch.

 _Proof for the King,_ he reasoned.

Soon the silver leaves changed to golden leaves. Jay reached out once again and plucked two branches of the shiny pieces of gold. He kept up with the princesses as the gold leaves changed once again. This time to diamonds. Jay grabbed a handful of branches this time.

 _Please let me bring these back to Auradon,_ he pleaded in his head.

When they reached the end of the grove they came across a river where twelve princes waited in twelve boats. The princesses met their respective prince who helped them into the boat. Jay followed closely behind Selene as she approached a prince. There was no hesitation in her actions, it seemed she knew exactly where to go in her trance. Jealousy boiled in the pit of Jay's stomach as the prince placed a light kiss on the back of her hand.

"Good evening, my princess," the prince said.

"Good evening, my prince," she replied.

It took everything in Jay to keep hidden and not tackle the prissy prince to the ground. Instead, he followed Selene into her boat. The prince rowed them across to the opposite bank, unaware of the death glare coming from the invisible guest.

As they crossed the river Jay saw another castle, one just as grand as the one they were already in.

 _How is this possible?_ Jay thought.

He had to remind himself that he was in a whimsical fairy tale, wearing an invisibility cloak. Anything was possible.

The princes guided the princesses into the castle and to a grand ballroom. There was a feast that went ignored as everyone proceeded to the dance floor. The room was decorated to the nines, nothing but the finest china were set out and the finest tapestries were used to decorate all around the room. Lit torches were placed around the room, casting a romantic glow.

Jay stood flushed against a wall and simply observed. It seemed it was just the twelve princes and twelve princesses that were in attendance. There were no guards or other guests. Jay decided to take a walk around the room. He wondered if the old woman's warning about accepting food and drinks from the girls included this mysterious castle's food, too. He didn't take any chances even though his sweet tooth was aching for the delicious looking pastries. Instead, he picked up an ornate fork. It wasn't like the fork that he'd used in the castle's kitchen, which was made of gold. This was silver with a crystal handle. He stuffed it in his pocket with the leaves.

Jay stood and watched the dancing couples once again. Specifically, he watched Selene and the prince she was dancing with. They slowly made their way around the dance floor. Jay wanted more than anything to take the fork he just swiped and jab it into the prince's neck.

"Are you happy, my princess?" the prince asked Selene as they slowly made their way closer to Jay.

"Yes," she replied, still in a trance. "I'm very happy."

"Will you stay with me, my princess?" he asked.

 _Like hell she will!_ Jay screamed in his head, his hands reaching for a crystal handle table knife.

Just then the prince slowly transformed into a demonic monster. He sprouted horns that curled like a ram. His face was no longer that of a handsome prince, but had become disfigured and elongated. He had grown an extra foot in height. His hands turned into long claws.

Jay stood in horror. This was the last thing he was expecting.

"Will you stay with me for all eternity?" the monster asked in a gruff voice.

"No!" Jay screamed out loud. He charged at the creature, disrupting the party and effectively snapping Selene and the princesses out of their trance. The princesses screamed in horror at seeing their prince in their monster form or watching the transformation from prince to monster.

Without a second thought Jay grabbed Selene and pushed her toward the exit, careful not to cut her with the knife still in his hand. His shoulder was forgotten as his adrenaline kicked in. He tried his best to get to every princess and fight off their monstrous prince, but twelve of them was really too much for the former thief. He was used to running away from others, not fighting them.

Selene turned from the exit to see the scene in the ballroom. She stood with three princesses as the others were being held by their prince. The other monsters, that the girls had just escaped, were struggling with an invisible force.

"Jay?" Selene whispered to herself.

"What do we do?" a princess asked next to her.

"Get to the boats and get back to the room," she urged, pushing them out the door. "Go! Now!"

The three princesses left. Selene hoped they knew how to row themselves across and there were no other problems along the way, but she couldn't think of that now. The princess closest to her, the oldest, was struggling to get away from her prince. Looking around, they were all in their monster form now. Selene grabbed a lit torch hanging on a pillar. She lit the oldest princess's prince on fire. He let go of the princess to deal with the flames.

"Get to the boats and go," Selene ordered and the eldest obayed.

Jay managed to escape the four monsters, losing his knife in a monster along the way, and proceeded to help the other princesses. Selene continued with the other princes until she was sure they had all princesses out of the castle. Unfortunately, a few monsters on fire had managed to get the tapestries lit and the fire was spreading quickly.

"Jay!" Selene screamed. He still had his cloak on. She was now surrounded by flames with no way out. She saw the flames move in an odd way as Jay appeared in midair to land next to her.

"On three we jump through," Jay said as he spread the cloak in front of them as a shield.

Jumping through the flames caused the cloak to catch on fire, but left them unharmed. Jay threw the now flaming cloak behind him hoping it would cause another obstacle for the monsters as they both ran for the exit and to the boats. Selene jumped into a boat and Jay grabbed an extra oar from the boat next to them to help her row, gritting his teeth through the pain the entire way.

Looking back at the castle they could see a few monsters emerging from the castle, a couple scorched by the flames. They moved quickly to the leftover boats to catch up to them.

Once Jay and Selene reached the opposite bank they quickly jumped out of the boat, but Selene paused at the beauty of the diamond filled trees.

"There's no time, princess, we gotta run," Jay said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her behind him.

The monsters had maneuvered their boats with ease and reached the opposite bank in no time. Selene and Jay made it to the staircase, but the monsters were hot on their heels. Their long legs and speed were impressive compared to the mortals they were chasing.

The princesses waited at the bedroom entrance for their sister, who had helped them escape. Once in sight, they urged her to hurry as they could see five monsters catching up to them on the stairs. Selene could hear them call, "Sister, hurry," "You're almost at the top," and "They're getting closer," but she was too exhausted. She'd been dancing for hours and the stairs were endless. Jay was pulling her along as opposed to her moving on her own.

Just then a monster grabbed her by the hair and tugged her backward. Her hand slipped out of Jay's grasp, causing him to stop in his tracks immediately.

"She is mine!" the monster said in a gruff voice.

Selene could only scream in fright and pain.

"Oh, no you don't," Jay said. He punched the monster square on the nose and it let go of Selene. "Go! Run!" Jay ordered as another monster came charging for her.

Jay's Tourney instincts kicked in as he slammed his own body, good shoulder first, into the monster. It fell back with Jay almost losing his own balance, but catching himself on the railing. The monster fell back knocking over the others in the process. Before they could get their bearings and come after them again, Jay turned on his heel and ran the rest of the way to the girls' bedroom.

"Hurry, Jay," Selene shouted. "They're coming again!"

Jay managed to get through just as the floor reappeared and the bed floated down to it's original position. There was some pounding coming from beneath, trying to reopen the magical trap door. It was so forceful that even with half the dozen of sisters on the bed, it still shook with the possibility of the monsters breaking through. After what felt like eternity the thumping stopped and the trap door had sealed itself once again.

"We are forever indebted to you," the oldest sister said to Jay. "And you," she said to Selene. "Such a brave younger sister."

"So brave," said another princess.

"We can share our gratitude in the morning. Let us rest," the oldest princess suggested.

"That sounds like a great idea," Jay stated. "Goodnight, princesses."

"Goodnight, young hero," one of the princess said.

"Yes, good night, young hero," the others repeated.

Jay couldn't help the proud smile that crossed his face. He caught Selene's eye.

 _He's such a peacock,_ Selene thought with a tired laugh.

"Goodnight, young hero," she repeated, although they both knew she were mocking him.

They all proceeded to their respective beds and fell asleep instantly. Unfortunately for all of them, the morning came all too soon, as the King came barging through their doors in the late mid morning, very much the same way he had done the morning before. Except this time, he didn't call the guards for Jay's execution.

"They've managed to out whit you, too, I see," he said trying his best to be jovial. "Oh well. Two nights remane."

"Hold on, sir," Jay said coming into Selene's view with no shirt on. The princesses gasped at the sight, most of them blushed.

"My boy, do you have no manners," the King exclaimed motioning to his shirtless abdomen.

"My apologies, your majesty," he said, retrieving a shirt to put on.

The other princesses simply giggled, while Selene rolled her eyes.

Jay approached the King once again with a shirt on and his sling in place.

"As you were saying," the King prompted.

"I have discovered where the princesses have been going every night," Jay announced.

"Have you?" the King asked turning to look at his daughters.

Most had the decency to look ashamed as they had put each other in danger every night.

There, in front of the King, the princesses, and a couple guards, Jay recounted the events of that night and offered the King a branch of silver, a branch of gold, a branch of diamonds, and a fork with a handle made of crystal as proof. Selene and the other princesses had gathered around to view Jay's offerings. This was the first time they had really looked at them.

After Jay finished the King turned to Selene, lightly caressed her cheek, and said, "I am proud to have a daughter as brave as the knights in my kingdom."

Selene stared back in wonder. Never once had her real father told her he was proud. Her thoughts went back to the oldest princess calling her brave, with such pride in her voice. She'd been too tired at the time to really grasp the praise, but she was wide awake now and she nearly broke down in tears.

"As promised," the King continued. "You may choose any of my daughters to wed."

The princesses stood upright and had their most gracious smile in place, but Jay looked to Selene.

"I choose your bravest," he said with no hesitation. She quickly looked away and couldn't help the blush that crept into her cheeks.

"Then you shall be wed tonight!" the King announced.

"This will be ever so exciting," one of the princesses said before they all scattered to get ready and the King went off to bark orders to his servants to get ready for the coming nuptial, leaving Jay and Selene all alone.

"I think this is our queue to go," Selene said deciding not to mention the fact that he had told the King that he wanted to marry her.

"Do you know how to get back?" Jay asked.

Selene grasped the talisman in her hand and said, "Take me home."

Jay could see a red glow emit from the talisman. They looked around and saw the doorway separating the two bedrooms had the same green and yellow vortex that had brought them there.

"Ready, young hero?" Selene teased.

Jay grabbed her hand. Intertwining his fingers with hers, he said, "Ready, princess."

They walked through the portal and came out the other end to Selene's dormroom. It was as simple as walking through the doorway. There was no endless falling or force pulling them apart. They looked down and they were back to their normal clothes, with the exception that Jay still had the sling on.

"That was pretty amazing," Selene said when the portal disappeared behind them.

Looking around the room, everything was where they had left it. She bent down to pick up the book.

" _The Twelve Princesses,_ " she read the title of the story before snapping it shut. "How's your shoulder?" she asked.

Jay moved his arm around. "Fine," Jay said taking the sling off. "Like I was never hurt."

"How'd you get hurt anyway?" she asked.

"I don't know," he answered. "I think it was just… hurt."

Selene kept looking around at the books on the floor. "We've been gone for at least a day. Do you think Freddie just kept the books on the floor? Did she tell anyone we were missing?"

Jay looked at the digital clock that doubled as a calendar on Selene's bedside table. It was the same day they left. "It's like we never left," he said motioning to the clock.

"Wow," Selene said. "Well… we should clean up the books."

Jay helped Selene pick up all the books that he'd magically moved around. It wasn't long before Selene heard Jay patting down his pockets, frantically searching them.

"Something wrong?" Selene asked. "Did you lose something?"

A smile spread across Jay's face as he pulled out a small branch of diamonds. "Nope," he said happily. "Want a diamond necklace, princess?"

"Really, Jay," she said with a laugh. "Swiping diamonds off of trees?"

"Better than swiping them from Auradon royalty," he reasoned.

She let out a chuckle. "Well, no thanks."

"Here take it. To… remember."

"Thank you," she said accepting the branch. "What about you?"

"Don't worry about me, princess. I have a whole bunch," Jay said pulling out more from his pocket.

Selene shook her head, still looking at the diamonds in her hands. "And stop calling me that. I'm not a princess. But…" she looked up at Jay. "You're a genie."

"And I did magic," Jay said still surprised. "This is crazy."

He took a seat on Selene's bed and she sat next to him. "Should we tell someone? Ben or Fairy Godmother?" she asked.

"I don't know," Jay said. "They might take away your talisman."

"Well, that would be suck, but I wished for something and you did it unwillingly. What if it were someone else in my position. Someone not so nice."

"Come on, Selene," Jay said. "It's Auradon. No one here is gonna make me grant bad wishes."

"Well, I wouldn't want anyone to take advantage of the situation," Selene reasoned. "Would you talk to someone about it. Maybe Ben?"

Jay could see the pleading in her eyes. "Alright, I'll talk to someone."

Selene moved forward and wrapped her arms around Jay. "Thank you, for granting my wishes. All three wishes granted," she said.

Resting his forehead against hers he said, "Anything for my mistress. Now, come on, it's dinner time."

Selene chuckled as she placed her book and diamonds in her bedside drawer. "Is that all you think about? Food?"

"No, there are other things," he answered.

Selene looked up from the drawer and Jay simply raised a brow, suggestively.

"Yeah, well you're not getting any of that right now. It's dinner time!" she said in mock cheer. "Besides, you're all sweaty."

She walked past Jay to exit the room and in return for her snarky comment he reached out to tickle her side. She let out a slight squeal, jumping through the door. Jay simply laughed as he exited as well, closing the door behind him.

* * *

 **Disclaimer:** I obviously don't own any of the fairy tales mentioned in this chapter and I definitely don't own _The Twelve Princesses._


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note:** Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone that has read, add to their favorites, started following, and reviewed this story (and my other stories). It seriously gets me excited every time I see notifications in my email. So thank you all so much! Just a little shout out to Ravenclaw Slytherin. Thank you for your reviews. I could really feel your excitement and it made me laugh. I'm glad you like it so far.

Also! For those of you that have read Sex Ed, I'm planning on writing another chapter? Or separate one-shot continuing the VK's education on puberty. Lol You can thank ArabellaRoseD & guest (I'm assuming the same person?) for the idea. I'm just not sure when I'll have time to write it. Seriously, how do people write multiple stories simultaneously?

Sorry for the long AN. On to the next!

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

Selene woke up an hour earlier than she needed to for class. She tiptoed around her shared dorm room with Freddie, so she could get ready and head straight for the nurse's office. As Nurse Hamada had instructed, she was going in for a follow up.

She was about to leave when there was a light knock at the door. Confused as to who else would be up at 6:00 in the morning, she walked over to see who it was.

"Hey," Jay greeted, fully dressed for the day.

Selene looked back at Freddie, to be sure she wasn't disturbed. "Hi," she whispered. "What are you doing up so early?"

"I'm gonna walk down to the nurse's office with you," he stated, also in a whisper, as if it was the most obvious answer.

Selene let out a light laugh. "You don't have to."

"I know," he replied placing his hands on her hips. "I just… want to be sure you're… okay."

She could tell he had some difficulty getting that out. She appreciated the effort he put into showing his affections.

"It's nothing to worry about, Jay," she said, pushing his hands away. "And definitely nothing we haven't experienced before."

It was Jay's turn to let out a laugh. She always made things so difficult.

"What if… I wanted… to… spend more time… with you?" he asked.

"Then you should have just said so," she replied with a playful smile.

Now she was just being difficult on purpose.

Jay reached out for her hands and pulled her closer. "I want to spend more time with you," he stated, his voice low. "We should head out now."

Selene walked over to her bed, where her backpack lay, doing her best to calm herself down. She could feel the heat in her face and was thankful that her tan complexion and the late rise of the sun hid the hint of pink that was surely there on her cheeks. Returning back to the entrance she quickly exited the dorm room with Jay.

"How are things going so far?" Jay asked as he grabbed her backpack and slung it over his shoulder like he'd been doing the last couple of days.

"Thank you," she smiled at him. "I've tried taking those pain pills Nurse Hamada gave me. Thought it would help when I sleep, but I still can't sleep on my back. I'm used to sleeping on my side anyway… and at least the bed is better than what I had on the Isle."

"They'll be healed soon and there won't be anymore of that," Jay said. "We don't have to worry about that stuff anymore."

They walked in silence for a bit before Selene asked, "Have you talked to Ben yet?"

Jay let out a sigh. It had been a couple days since he had performed magic and they had their little adventure in Selene's storybook.

"Uh, no. Not yet," he said.

"I think you need to tell him soon," Selene said. "I feel like we did something wrong."

"Don't worry. I'll handle it."

Jay placed his arm around her shoulders and gave it a squeeze. Selene dropped it for now, but if he wasn't going to talk to Ben about it, she'd be sure to do it herself.

They continued to walk the rest of the way in silence. As they walked Selene noticed how close Jay walked next to her, his arm still around her shoulder. This was completely different from their time on the Isle. They were rarely seen walking together. People would have looked at them weird if they walked this close. These were things they kept a secret on the Isle. They would have been banished with Evil Queen and Evie if people found out how physically affectionate they were on that rooftop, or worse.

She did notice that he never stood this close while in public. Except for their first night in the library, of course, but they were in a deserted corner. A part of her liked it that way. It was what they were used to. It was something familiar in an unfamiliar place.

Then there was the other part of her that wondered why they still hid their relationship. This was Auradon. This was the fairytale land that she'd read about. They wouldn't be exiled for their behavior. It made her wonder.

Selene shook her thoughts away as they were approaching the nurse's office. There was Nurse Hamada unlocking the door, opening up for the day. Jay removed his arm before the school nurse could spot them.

"Good morning," Nurse Hamada said cheerily. "I wasn't expecting you here so early. Well, come in, come in," she ushered the two students into the office. "You'll need to wait here again," she said to Jay. "Unless you need help with something."

"No, just here for… uh… moral support? I guess," Jay replied. "I'll just be here."

Jay took a seat on the couch as Nurse Hamada brought Selene to the same bed as she had on the first day and drew the curtains for privacy.

"Okay, let's see how you're doing today. Shirt off," the nurse instructed.

She hmm'd and ahh'd as she inspected Selene's back.

"Your cuts are healing nicely," she observed. "Unfortunately, you'll be brushed for a while longer after the cuts have healed. Are you having trouble with the pain or are the scabs itchy? I can get you an ointment for that."

"No," Selene answered. "Nothing out of the ordinary."

It broke Nurse Hamada's heart to hear her speak so neutrally. That even under the newly formed abrasions and other parts that she couldn't see, there were scars from previous incidents. That she'd been through this so many times that it was normal.

"Well, good news is nothing is infected and should heal all on its own. Nothing to worry about."

"That's what I told Ben," Selene mumbled softly.

Nurse Hamada let out a thoughtful, "Hmmm. We haven't experience this sort of thing for years. Way before you were even a thought to your parents, and even then, rarely so. I'm sure Ben was just being cautious."

As an afterthought she added, "If you ever need someone to talk to…"

Selene knew what she was about to say. She'd read enough stories to know there were "specialists" that she could see.

"I have Jay," Selene interrupted. "We actually talk a lot. Well, we used to talk a lot. I think he was the only thing that kept me… normal, sane, while on the Isle."

Selene didn't realize until that moment that what she said was true.

Nurse Hamada smiled and nodded at the young girl. "Very good. You may get dressed. If you have any questions or concerns, I'm here."

Selene slipped her shirt back on and bid the nurse goodbye. Jay stood from his seat when he saw Selene walking toward him.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, everything's fine," she answered with a small smile.

Jay knew everything was not fine, physically and emotionally. The whole situation was far from fine, but at least she wouldn't have to experience that physical pain for much longer. Once the cuts and bruises were healed there would be no more. But when it came to emotions, he knew this wasn't the end. He still dealt with his past and he knew she would too.

Despite that, he simply accepted her answer and they exited the nurse's office with a final wave to the nurse in charge.

It was still early, so they walked to Selene's locker to put away any textbooks she didn't need for the morning.

"Do you actually do your homework?" Selene asked as Jay leaned against the lockers, waiting for her. "I don't think I've ever seen you take your books out of your locker."

Jay smiled. "Don't be surprised, but I do. I just keep my books in my room."

Selene was surprised despite the former thief's request.

"I'll be right back," Jay said before he walked past her as she continued to shuffle through her books. "Hey, Jordan!" He called out.

Selene had heard about Jordan a couple times, had a talk show of some kind and interviewed the members of the Tourney team often. Jay spoke highly of Jordan, who was apparently an enthusiastic tourney observant and knew the game well. She'd thought this Jordan was a boy, but was surprised to see Jay talking to a girl. A pretty one at that.

She watched as they spoke to one another. Jay seemed to have a small smile in place. Selene wondered if it was a courteous smile or flirtatious one. She couldn't entirely tell as he was mostly faced away from her. Thinking back to their time on the Isle, she remembered Jay flirting with different girls around Dragon Hall, but it never bothered her. Now, was different. Now, she was feeling insecure.

Selene was snapped out of her thoughts, literally. Finally focusing on Evie's hand in front of her face, she turned to look at the blue haired girl.

"Hi, Evie. Sorry, did you say something?" Selene asked.

"No worries," Evie replied. "I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out after school since Jay has practice today."

She hesitated for a bit as the thought of hanging out with Jay's friends without Jay as a buffer unnerved her. She'd never had friends and wouldn't know what to do with herself. Additionally, hanging out with Evie meant cutting in on her reading time. Then again, depending on what exactly Evie had planned, she could get some reading done.

Selene mentally shook her head. She was in Auradon now. She could have friends here, just like the ones she'd read about in her books.

"Um, sure," she said trying her best to not sound awkward or insincere.

"Great!" Evie exclaimed excitedly. "I'll meet you here after school."

Selene turned her attention back to Jay once Evie was out of sight. He was looking at her with furrowed brows. He was saying goodbye to Jordan and walked back over.

"Why's Evie so excited? Did you agree to let her design some clothes for you?" Jay asked jokingly.

"She asked me to hangout after school," Selene shrugged.

Jay let out a laugh. "Just a warning, she might try to play dress up with you."

Selene let out a shudder as Jay continued to laugh at her expense.

The day passed by quickly without anything eventful happening. Selene actually hoped the time would move slower. She was slightly dreading hanging out with Evie after school.

 _Is this what social anxiety feels like?_ she thought.

Selene walked to her locker and packed whatever textbooks she needed to do her homework into her backpack. It wasn't long before Evie bounced over, an excited smile on her face.

"Hey!" she greeted excitedly. "How were your classes today?"

"Pretty boring," Selene answered honestly.

Evie nodded her head knowing how boring classes could be.

"Do you have a lot of homework?" she asked noticing Selene's backpack. The younger girl simply nodded in response. "We can study in my room."

The two girls turned to head to the dormitory. They walked in silence, which seemed fine for Selene.

"Anyone else joining us?" Selene asked as they ascended the stairs leading to Evie and Mal's shared room.

She was still weary about being around people and with Jay at practice, it put her on edge. Jay was her buffer. She noticed the glares he gave his friends when they were getting too nosy, asking too many questions.

"Umm, no," Evie answered. "Mal's planning something for her next date with Ben. I think Lonnie's working on a project. Jane, you remember Jane, right? She's doing some student council stuff."

"Must be brutal being so shy, but having Fairy Godmother, of all people, as your parent," Selene mused, remembering the awkward girl.

"Definitely," Evie agreed as she stepped through the doorway and into her dorm. "Make yourself at home."

Selene stopped at the entrance looking at the sign on the door. "Evie's 4 Hearts?" she read.

"My clothing line," Evie said. "A lot of people pay top dollar for my designs. I made most of the dresses for cotillion last year and some of the suits. Oh! I could totally design some clothes for you!"

"I don't have much," Selene said nonchalantly. "Just my weekly allowance that we get after moving here."

As Selene walked in she noticed the dorm was similar to her own, aside from all the clothes, fabrics, and art supplies scattered around the room. It had the same white walls with pink flowery accents. They even kept their curtains drawn so it would block out most of the sunlight.

"Yeah, it's totally pocket change," Evie said as she walked over to a window and pulled the curtain aside. "Mal likes it better when it's dark, but the sun provides a lot of vitamins that are good for you," she stated. "I hope you don't mind."

Selene shook her head as she sat at the desk opposite the now open window. "I think Freddie prefers the dark, too. I'm indifferent."

"Great! And don't worry about money. You get the special Isle discount. Of course we don't have as much as our classmates, but we know how to make do with what we have. Right? Really don't worry about it. Now let's get all this homework out of the way so we can have some fun."

The two girls silently worked on their respective assignments in silence. Selene didn't have any classes with Evie except for Remedial Goodness, but Fairy Godmother never gave them any real homework. She didn't have much of Jay's friends in any of her classes as they were all a year older than her, except for Carlos. But she didn't have classes with him, Jace, nor Harry.

"So, where's Doug?" Selene asked. She was intrigued by the fact that she and Mal had significant others so quickly after leaving the Isle. She tried not to hope too much that the same would happen for her with Jay.

"With Ben and Jane at student council," Evie answered simply.

Selene just nodded, returning to her chemistry homework.

After a moment Evie could feel the itch of gossip in her throat. She tried to contain it, but Selene asking a simple question seemed to make the itch greater. She knew if Jay caught wind of her being nosy, she'd be in trouble. But she couldn't help it! She'd seen the looks and teasing Selene and Jay did with each other. She needed to know.

"So…" she started out slowly. "Umm…" How was she gonna do this? "Are there any cute boys you've seen around campus?"

Not exactly the question she wanted to ask, but maybe a good ice breaker.

Selene looked up, surprised and confused. She was sure the blue haired girl had some sort of inkling as to what was going on between herself and Jay.

Evie found it difficult to concentrate on her homework as she waited for the younger girls answer.

"There are a lot of handsome boys around, I guess?"

Evies head shot up. "But is there one in particular? There is one right?" She sounded panicked.

Selene let out a chuckle. Clearly Evie wanted her answer to be Jay. She might as well be honest. At least Jay wasn't here to hear what she had to say.

"If you're trying to ask me about Jay… I don't know."

"You don't know if he's the cutest?" Evie asked confused.

Selene laughed again. "No, I don't know what's going on." She let out a sigh. "I don't even know what was going on on the Isle."

"What exactly happened on the Isle?" Evie asked before she could stop herself. "Sorry! You don't have to answer that… and don't tell Jay I asked."

"It's okay," Selene replied. "I won't tell, if you tell me what he's told you."

Knowing that Selene wasn't upset encouraged Evie to divulge. "He told us about your dad's. He didn't get specific, but, apparently, it's common knowledge that that kind of stuff happens. Which I think is horrible."

"So… your mom doesn't…" Selene tried to ask.

"Not like your dad," Evie stated. "You have to remember, mom and I were banished. We only had each other. But she wasn't loving like the parents here, either. She's just more… verbal with her abuse."

"Oh," was all Selene could say as she looked back to her textbook.

"He also said you two helped each other," Evie continued. "Did you really?" She only received a nod from the other girl. "Wow, I didn't think anyone helped anyone else on the Isle."

Selene let out a light laugh. "Yeah, I guess I'm just…"

"Different," Evie finished the sentence with her. "That's what Jay kept saying about you. I can tell he has feelings for you."

"Really?" Selene asked.

Letting out a scoff, Evie placed both of her hands on the table with a light slap. "Of course! He wouldn't have asked Ben to consider bringing you over from the Isle if he didn't."

"Probably just… feelings of friendship," Selene assumed.

Another scoff. "Honestly, Selene. Don't you read?" she asked with a laugh. "You should understand these kinds of feelings more than anyone from the Isle. But I guess you weren't there to see him talk about you. If you were, you would have seen it too. It was really sweet."

Selene could feel the heat of a blush rise in her cheeks. "I guess you could say we were friends while on the Isle, but it was just… complicated."

Evie desperately wanted to know what exactly made things complicated, but decided against it before Jay found out. She had already pried too much.

"Anything that involves feelings are always complicated. Especially with people like us," Evie let out a sigh remembering Mal's inner turmoil with Ben.

"But things seemed to turn out fine for you guys," Selene stated. "You and Doug. Mal and Ben."

"Carlos and Jane sometime after," Evie added with a nod. "It will for you, too," she said encouragingly.

The conversation ended there and Selene was grateful for it. She didn't think she could take anymore talk about her relationship with Jay. After seeing Jordan for the first time it seemed to make their complicated relationship even more complicated, even with Evie's assessment of Jay's feelings.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note:** Descendants 2 is on and it reminded me to post. I haven't had time. Actually, that's only half true. The next few chapters are already written and edited at least once over, but I've had a bit of writer's block and just didn't feel like posting.

And of course I have to give a shout out to everyone that favorited, added, & reviewed! You all rock! Thank you guys so much for reading. MemeSoldier, I could NOT include Baymax! Especially since Selene went to the nurse's office. He's the Disney designated personal healthcare companion!

This is a pretty short chapter, but on to the next!

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

Jay had been standing in front of his locker looking at his Tourney jacket hanging inside for the last ten minutes. It had been taunting him the whole day. Every time he opened up his locker it mocked him as it simply hung there. He could have sworn he could hear it mocking him in his head while he sat in class. Especially as he sat next to Selene in Remedial Goodness and during their breaks.

It was Friday, a game day, and maybe he wanted to ask a certain someone to wear it at the game. If only he could get the courage to do it.

"Jay, you alright?" Ben asked shaking him out of his trance.

"What? Uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm okay," Jay said looking back at his jacket.

Ben looked into Jay's locker too and saw the object of Jay's troubles.

"You gonna ask Selene to wear it?" Ben asked.

No point beating around the bush. Besides, he was curious. And with his Kingly duties he didn't get much time to find out what's happening with his friends. He needed to use his time wisely and being indirect took too much time.

Before Jay could answer the girl in question walked up to them with Evie right next to her.

"Hey, guys," Evie greeted and Jay quickly shut his locker. "It's Selene's first Tourney game. You guys better make it exciting."

Selene shook her head with a laugh. "I'm sure it'll be exciting no matter what."

"Jay's the star of the team," Ben said giving him a nudge. "He really is a sight to see on the field."

Jay let out a light chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck, looking down at his shoes.

His three friends eyed each other wearily. Jay usually had something to say. Something funny. Something playfully arrogant. Anything.

"Well," Ben said breaking the awkward silence. "I'm gonna head out. I'll see you in the locker room, Jay."

"Yeah, I'm gonna go, too," Evie said backing away. "I'm gonna see Doug before the game. Wish him and the rest of the band good luck."

Selene watched Ben and Evie walk down the hall, Ben heading down to the locker rooms and Evie walking to the bleachers where the band was already set and ready to go.

"Are you okay?" Selene asked concerned. "You nervous about the game?"

Jay ran his hand through his long locks. His jacket was mocking him again.

"Jay?" Selene said to get his attention.

Her concern grew with every second he didn't say anything. She looked around noticing the hallway was deserted. She chanced placing her hands in his and Jay proceeded to intertwine his fingers with hers. She looked down at their hands. It felt like a long time since he last held her hand like this.

"I-I'm fine," he reassured her. "I just... feel like we haven't had a lot of time... together."

"You realize we've spend more time together than we usually did on the Isle, right?" Selene asked to lighten the mood, but Jay just shrugged. "I haven't even been here for a full week. We had classes. You had Tourney practice. Your friends wanted to get to know me. We've actually spent a lot of time together considering the circumstances." He still seemed solemn. "It'll be Sunday soon."

Jay lit up at the thought of another Sunday with Selene. "Promise me we'll spend all of Sunday together? Just us, the way it used to be."

"In the library?" Selene asked playfully.

"Wherever you want," Jay answered.

Selene let out a giggle. "Then, yes, I promise. We can have our Sundays back."

Jay felt a lightness that only Selene could give him. He no longer thought about his Tourney jacket. He could only think about the soft hands he currently held in his own.

"Do you think your friends-"

"Our friends," Jay corrected her.

"Uh, yeah, our friends will be suspicious?" Selene asked. "I mean, they might ask us questions if they notice we're both missing the whole day."

Jay let go of one of her hands and placed it on the side of her face. "Don't worry about it. I got it handled."

"You realize making them keep quiet doesn't mean that they won't suspect anything," Selene said with a laugh. "Poor Evie, it was like she committed a crime when she asked me what we did on the Isle."

"She what?" Jay asked, upset. He let go of Selene and made to walk off in the direction Evie had left.

"You're such a bully," Selene said with a laugh, tugging on his jersey, stopping him in his tracks. "Leave her alone and act like you don't know."

Before they could continue with their conversation, a call came from down the hall.

"Hey man, we gotta get to the locker room."

They looked over to see Carlos walking up to them with Harry and Jace in tow. He was right, they needed to head to the locker room now.

"You guys should head to the field to get good seats," Carlos told the others. "Don't wanna miss your first Tourney game."

"Yeah, sounds like fun," Jace said not waiting on the others and continued walking to the field.

Harry just shrugged and followed his cousin. The rest of them following suit.

"Good luck, guys," Selene said as Jay and Carlos headed for the locker rooms.

The three new Auradon students walked to the bleachers to find that it was already half occupied with the students donning their Auradon blue and yellow.

"Should we have changed?" Harry asked.

"I thought there were a lot of people wearing blue today," Jace mused. "I thought I was just imagining it."

Selene spotted some purple among all the blue. "There's Mal," she stated.

"Guys, over here," said the naturally blue girl next to Mal. "We saved you spots."

They walked over to their friends. Selene noticed Freddie and Lonnie were there with them.

"Where's Jane?" Harry asked. "I wouldn't think Carlos's girlfriend would miss his game?"

"She's at every game," Lonnie stated. "She's the mascot."

The three looked in the direction Lonnie was pointing. There on the sidelines with the cheerleaders was the Auradon Knights mascot dressed head to toe in armor.

"Yikes," Harry said.

"And Doug?" Jace asked.

"He's in the band," Evie answered fondly. "Isn't he adorable?"

Harry and Jace snickered. "Nice uniform," Harry said causing Freddie to snicker along with them.

Mal covered her mouth to hide her smile. It was difficult to shake the teasing nature from them. They needed their bad side to come out once in awhile. As long as it wasn't malicious, it was fine.

Evie harrumphed. "Well, I think it's cute," she pouted.

"There are a lot of girls that think uniforms are very attractive on a man," Selene told the boys, a smirk in place.

So, she'd read a smutty book or two staring a sailor or police officer. She was a growing girl.

Evie nodded in complete agreement. Lonnie gave a thoughtful nod as did Freddie and Mal. Harry and Jace looked to each other in wonder.

Harry stroked his chin in thought. "Uniforms, huh?" he said causing the girls to laugh.

Soon the opposing teams were on the field to start the game. Lonnie did her best to explain the game as it happened. Evie and Freddie weren't much help as they were still trying to understand the game themselves. Mal wasn't much help either. She and Ben tried not to talk about Tourney or his King duties too much.

Ben hadn't been exaggerating, Jay really was the star of the game. He didn't necessarily score the most points, he shared that victory with the others on the team. But he was definitely the one to watch.

There were various screams of "Go Jay!" and "Awesome move!" from the crowd.

Mal moved from her spot behind the three new Isle kids to stand next to Selene. "Haven't seen him play like this since last year," she semi-screamed for Selene to hear above the roar of the crowd.

Mal and Selene hadn't spoken much. Selene found that Evie and Lonnie were easier to talk to. Their cheery disposition and the fact that they did most of the talking was easier than contributing to half of the conversation. Mal and Freddie still had that Isle edge that she was never fond of. And Jane, she was a little too shy for Selene. Two quiet people didn't make good conversations, but it was great when they had to get studying done.

"What do you mean? Did he get hurt?" Selene asked.

"His mind's been kind of… preoccupied." Selene looked at the purple haired girl questioningly. "I think he missed you," Mal clarified.

Jay could be secretive as much as he wanted, his friends knew him too well.

They both looked back out to the field to see Jay narrowly being hit in the Kill Zone. There was an eruption of cheers after he dogged the disk with ease. The game came to an end when Jay passed the ball to a boy that Selene didn't know, to score the winning goal.

"And that's the end of the game with the score 10 to 2, Auradon wins," the game announcer yelled into the microphone. "And what a game it was."

The announcer's voice was drained out as everyone in the bleachers filed out. Some heading straight to the dining room for dinner, while others waited on the sidelines to congratulate their friends on the team.

"There are a lot of people going to the dining room," Harry observed. He could feel his stomach growl.

"You don't want to congratulate Carlos?" Doug asked as he walked over to them, placing one arm around Evie's waist as his other hand held onto his trumpet.

Harry nodded. "Well, yeah… but I'm also really hungry."

Selene let out a laugh. Harry was always hungry.

Freddie rolled her eyes. "I'll go with Harry and save you guys seats. We can congratulate them in the dining room," she said.

"Awesome," Harry said excitedly.

"Uhh, maybe I'll come too," Jace said eagerly. "Uhh… we can grab Carlos's food so he doesn't have to wait in line."

And with that the three walked away to the dining room.

Selene caught Mal's eye and with a smirk said, "Suspicious?"

"Very," Mal replied back, a similar smirk in place.

Their small group walked closer to the sidelines. Ben ran up to Mal and swept her off her feet, literally.

"Congratulations," she giggled, still in his arms.

Selene watched the normally stoic girl and the young King. Mal and Ben had been pretty neutral around each other while they were around their friends. Kings didn't participate in PDA all that much, apparently. They'd hold hands. Give each other a quick kiss before going their separate ways. Smile to each other once in awhile when they think no one was watching. But she'd never seen this side of them.

Carlos was right behind Ben holding hands with Jane, who was still in her mascot uniform.

There was a round of congratulations for the two players.

"Where's Jace and Harry?" Carlos asked.

"And Freddie?" Ben added.

"They're saving us seats for dinner," Mal informed them. "Where's Jay?"

"Getting interviewed," came a new voice from behind them. "Just got done with mine."

Selene noticed Jordan right at the edge of the field. She had a microphone in hand and seemed to be interviewing Jay at the moment. Jordan seemed more animated than the usual seriousness that Selene had observed during school. Jay seemed to be having fun with her.

"Do you guys know Aziz?" Ben asked.

There were mumbled affirmatives and head nods.

"Haven't met this beauty," Aziz said motioning to Selene.

Evie let go of Doug to place her hands on hips, glaring at the boy that joined their group.

"Uh, right," Ben said not knowing how he felt about Aziz's actions toward his new friend. "Selene?"

She turned her attention back to her friends. "Hmm?" she hummed.

"This is Aziz. Aziz, this is Selene," Ben introduced.

"My parents are Sultan Aladdin and Sultana Jasmine," he said.

Aziz gave her a smirk similar to Jay's, though not quite as effective. Selene politely smiled in return.

"That's great. Now how about we head to the dining room," Evie rushed out, not liking the way Aziz looked at Selene.

"Yes, I'm starving," Carlos said already walking away with Jane, not waiting for anyone else to answer Evie.

Everyone followed Carlos, but Selene just looked back to Jay. The interview was over and he and Jordan were just talking now.

"Selene, you coming?" Ben asked.

"I think I'll wait for Jay," she replied with a small smile.

"We'll wait with you," Mal offered referring to herself and Ben. The others were already making their way out of the stadium.

"Why don't you two love birds get going," Aziz said in faux sweetness causing Mal's lip to curl in disgust. "I'll stay and wait with her."

Ben looked at Mal who just shrugged. "You okay with that Selene?" he asked.

"Of course she is," Aziz answered for her.

Selene finally paid attention long enough and looked over to the future Sultan of Agrabah. He had a pretty dark complexion, probably from the desert sun and Tourney. His hair was pitch black and a bit shaggy. She had to admit he was pretty handsome, but also realized how much of a creep he was and threw him a glare.

Who did he think he was answering questions for her.

"I'll be fine... alone," Selene stated before turning and walking toward Jay.

Ben and Mal walked off, heading to the dining room.

"So, how'd you like the game?" Aziz asked catching up with her, forcing her to come to a halt as he stepped directly in front of her.

"Interesting," she said attempting to walk around him.

He side stepped to block her again. "Not sure if you noticed, but that was me that scored the winning goal," he boasted.

"I didn't actually," she said trying again to walk around him and once again he side stepped into her way.

"So, you and Jay, huh?" he asked, trying to get her attention.

There was buzz around the school that Jay wanted a girl to come from the Isle. It was all hearsay, of course. That is, until a girl did come from the Isle and Jay spent a lot of time with her.

"What about me and Jay?" she asked with a bite in her tone. He was starting to annoy her.

"You two going out or something?" he asked with a brow raised.

That hit her hard. He'd been the first person that outright asked. Her friends knew better, probably because Jay told them to mind their own business. Or they simply understood that she and Jay had a… thing. She still didn't know what to call it.

"What's it to you?"

"Well, if you two are together, I'd better let him know that all's fair in love and war, and I have no problem facing him for my lady's hand," he said bowing to her.

She gave him an incredulous look. "How… medieval," she stated and finally weaved around him as he was still bowed.

"Congrats again, Jay," Selene heard Jordan say. "You looked great out there."

"Thanks," she heard Jay chuckle.

 _Was that flirting?_ Selene asked herself.

Before she could reach them Jordan had all her equipment in her hands and walked away.

Jay turned around to see Selene. The smile on his face fell as he saw the annoyed expression she wore.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Jay asked.

"Maybe we could have a picnic on the grounds sometime," they heard Aziz say from where Selene had left him. "My lady," he finished with a bow before walking away.

Selene huffed and turned back to Jay. "He's such a ham," she stated.

"Yeah, he is," he agreed now staring daggers at Aziz's back. "Did he just ask you out?"

"No. Even if he did, I'd say no," Selene scoffed. "He's a… royal pain."

Jay let out a laugh. "Is that why you look like you're in a bad mood?" he asked taking her chin with his thumb and forefinger so she'd look at him.

 _Partly,_ she thought to herself. "Yeah," she said instead.

"Did everyone just leave you?" Jay asked realizing they were the only two people left in the stadium now.

"I wanted to wait for you," she admitted causing a big smile to appear on Jay's face. "Congratulations, by the way. It was a very exciting game. You did a lot of flips and tricks out there. Trying to impress someone?"

She had asked playfully, hoping he was trying to impress her. But in the back of her mind she was afraid it was for someone else.

Jay let out a chuckle, but he didn't answer. He simply grabbed her hand and they proceeded to walk to the dining room.

She'd push the negative thoughts to the side and reminded herself that actions spoke louder than words. He was holding her hand for now, not anyone else's.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note:** Sorry guys! I haven't updated in forever. I've just been busy. Thank you all for sticking around and for those new readers that have added to your favorites and follows! Hope you all had a wonderful holidays!

If I'm being honest, I haven't been in the mood to write. I've been trying to figure out if Descendants 2 will somehow fit in this or if I'll just ignore it completely, but there are a lot of continuity issues between the movies and the books.

* * *

 **Chapter 7**

It was finally Sunday. Despite the difficulty falling asleep the night before, Jay had no problem getting up early. After getting dressed he made his way down to sneak into the kitchen before making his way to the dining hall to get some breakfast for Selene and himself.

 _They're all crazy for being up this early,_ Jay thought as he headed out of the dining hall, shaking his head at the few people that were already there eating breakfast.

"Morning, Jay," Lonnie greeted as she entered the dining room. "You're up early. Why is your meal tray empty? Where are you going? Why do you have your backpack? What do you have in there?"

"Morning," he mumbled ignoring all her questions and her upbeat attitude. "Can't talk. See ya." And with that he was headed back to the dorms.

When Jay found his way onto the third floor of the girl's wing, he spotted Freddie walking towards him.

"She's still sleeping," Freddie stated. "You owe me so much."

Jay had practically begged Freddie to leave their dorm early. He knew most people wanted to just sleep in on Sunday, but he wanted to surprise Selene with breakfast. They'd never had a full day together on the Isle. Jay had obligations for his father and the shop that kept him busy all morning. But here in Auradon, they were regular kids, with little responsibilities and expectations from the adults. They didn't have to be the best, most evilest in the land. All they had to do was be their best and choose good, which was far less exhausting than being evil, in Jay's opinion.

"You can sleep on my bed all day, if you want," Jay said, finally cracking a smile.

"Filled with sweat from Tourney, I'm sure," she said with a yawn. "Better than what we had on the Isle at least, so I'll definitely do that. But you owe me more." And with that she made her way to Jay and Carlos's room.

Jay was thankful for Freddie. She never asked any questions like Evie would. As long as she got what she wanted in the end, it didn't matter what Jay wanted. It was part of the Isle mentality. Don't ask any questions, get what you want, and blackmail when you don't.

When Jay reached Selene's dorm he slowly opened the door, careful not to make too much noise. He placed the tray lightly on the study desk and started to plate the food he'd placed in his backpack. He pulled out the plates of bacon, toast, and muffins, all of which he'd wrapped in napkins, and placed them on the tray. He pulled out a couple bananas and oranges as well as the bottle of orange juice and cups he'd swiped from the kitchens.

"Eh," he whispered to himself as he looked at his messy set up.

It was the thought that counts anyway, right?

Jay tiptoed over to the bathroom to throw away the greasy napkins and wash his hands. He then proceeded to walk over to Selene's sleeping form on her bed. She was sleeping on her side. He knew her cuts and bruises were still there and it hurt her to sleep on her back. She had one arm under her head for extra support, while the other arm hugged a pillow to her chest. He knelt down at the edge of her bed. She looked so peaceful.

He reached out to caress the side of her face. As he brushed a thumb across her cheek she let out a sigh.

"Selene?" Jay whispered to rouse her.

"Hm?" was the only thing he got out of her. Her brows furrowed slightly, but she was still asleep.

Jay let out a chuckle. "Selene," he said slightly louder. "It's Sunday."

"Mhm," she hummed in what Jay thought was her subconscious agreeing that it was, indeed, Sunday.

This time he moved his face closer to hers. He could feel her breath come out in little puffs. It took everything in him to not kiss her. She wasn't Sleeping Beauty, she was a completely new and different story all on her own.

"Selene," he said in a whisper again.

Her eyes fluttered open at the warm puff of wind that hit her face. Startled that there was someone too close, she recoiled onto her back, causing her to yelp in pain.

"Selene, are you okay?" Jay asked genuinely worried for the girl in front of him.

"Jay!" she exclaimed finally taking a good look at her intruder. "What are you doing?" she asked, pain evident in her voice.

She made to get up and Jay helped her onto her feet. He noticed she was in beige short shorts with a dark green, oversized, long sleeve shirt on, both of which were made of a thin flimsy material. Her hair was down, only slightly tangled from the long night of sleep.

"Sorry, I scared you," Jay apologized rubbing the back of his neck. "I, uh... I wanted to... surprise you." Jay motioned toward the food on the table.

"It's Sunday," she realized with a small smile, the pain from her back forgotten. "You didn't have to do this."

"I didn't have to get you crepes before I met you on your roof either, but I did," Jay countered.

Selene leaned up to place a chaste kiss on his cheek. "I appreciated it every time," she said. "Thank you."

Jay motioned for them to have a seat. "How's your back?" he asked pulling out a chair for her.

"Thanks. Oh, it's fine. It only hurts when I lay on it," she said dismissively. "The pain is already gone."

"Sorry," he said again.

"You already said you're sorry and I forgive you," she said giving him a fond smile, which he gladly returned. She turned her attention back to the food before her. "Uh… Jay? No utensils?" Selene asked.

Jay didn't have too look down at the table or double check his backpack. He knew he forgot some utensils.

"I can't believe I forgot," he groaned, slumping back in his chair. "I'll go down and get some."

"It's fine," Selene said tugging on his vest to keep him in his seat.

She started filling the cups with orange juice, which Jay did remember to bring. After placing a cup next to Jay she continued to grab two precut, triangular pieces of toast. She used one to sweep some eggs onto the other, broke a piece of bacon in two, placed them on the eggs, and topped it off with the second piece of toast.

"Thank you, for breakfast," she said before taking a bite of her little sandwich.

"Feisty, you're always filled with bright ideas," Jay praised her before making a breakfast sandwich of his own.

The two decided to spend the day in the dorm room after Selene confessed she preferred the room to the semi-crowded library.

"Are you sure you don't want to go to the library? You could pick up a new book," Jay suggested.

Selene swallowed her last bite of food and stood up to walk over to her bed. "I was prepared for today," she said. She reached down to her backpack and pulled out two books.

"Wow, two books," Jay chuckled. "All done with your homework?"

"All done. You?"

Selene sat back down at the table, swept up any crumbs off to the side, and placed both books in front of her.

"Just one left," Jay confessed. "I have to write a short story for English class."

Jay had been putting off this assignment all week. He wasn't creative. He didn't know what to write about. He looked over at Selene with a pleading look.

"Did you need help?" she asked.

"Please? And if you have paper and a pencil, too, that would be awesome."

Shaking her head, Selene got up to grab her Auradon allocated laptop. Every student received one. Luckily, they all had Carlos to help them figure out how to use it. She walked back to the table, placed it in front of Jay, and booted it up. Unfortunately, for Jay, he never cared for technology, so he never learned much.

"Uh, I don't type very fast," Jay admitted. "I'm more comfortable writing on paper."

Selene wasn't very good with computers either. She knew the basics. On the Isle all she did was read books, not ebooks. But after finally using her laptop for her history research paper she found she liked the uniformed typed look over her own handwriting.

Selene got back up to get her notebook and a pen.

"Well, you can write it for now and when you're finished you can type it up, while I read," she suggested. "That's what I'm doing for my research paper on pirates."

Jay nodded as he pushed the laptop aside and took the pen in his hand.

"Do you have any ideas for the story?" Selene asked receiving a head shake from Jay. "Well, what's the assignment? What are you being graded on?"

"Mr. Robert is making sure we understand the whole plot diagram thing," he said. "You know rising something, climax, and resolution or whatever. But I don't know why we need to know that when he said there's no rules in writing a story."

Selene let out a laugh. "There are basic rules. The climax always comes near the end of the story. If the climax came at the beginning or middle then everything after that would be boring and pointless," she explained. "I think he meant that there are so many different ways to write. There are short stories, novels, there are plays, poems, and different kinds of poems at that. Some poems rhyme, some don't. Some are short, some are long."

"Okay, Selene, I get it," Jay said with a laugh. "That's kind of why I wanted your help."

"Did I sound like Lonnie just then?" she asked jokingly.

Jay let out another laugh. "You had the Lonnie speed, but none of the Lonnie cheer."

With an exaggerated sigh of relief Selene said, "Man, these Auradon kids really get into your head, huh? Let's get to it then."

After hours of brainstorming and writing it was approaching lunch and they had just finished Jay's short story. Selene quietly read her book as Jay slowly typed it out on the laptop. He'd lightly curse to himself every now and then. It was a slow moving process.

Selene started eating one of the leftover muffins as she read.

"Take a bite," she said holding out the muffin in front of Jay. He took a bite as instructed as he continued to type away.

Soon Selene was done eating and too engrossed in her book that she didn't hear Jay say, "Done. Finally."

He looked over at Selene, who was still reading. She had pulled her hair half up while he was typing to keep her hair out of her eyes. She was hunched over her book with brows furrowed. Looking at her now he knew she didn't need her talisman, she always went into her books. She might not be there in person, but she was in for the ride with the main character every time. She'd be pulled into the story, away from the real world just like she was at that very moment.

He almost felt bad for what he was about to do.

Jay placed the laptop aside and moved his chair closer to hers so she was positioned between his legs. He lightly brushed the loose strands of hair away from her neck. Just like previous times on the Isle, he could see the scars that her father had left there. He leaned in to place a chaste kiss on her neck among the scars.

He pulled away to see that Selene was still engrossed in her book.

This time Jay pushed her hair over to her opposite shoulder. There on the back of her neck was the scar that she had refused to show him for a long time. The scar that was the main purpose for her never pulling her hair back fully. The scar that she was the most ashamed of. It wasn't just any scar made of random jagged lines. Stromboli had done it on purpose. There on the back of her neck was a scar that spelled out "worthless."

Jay brushed his thumb against the word. He hated it almost as much as she did. Leaning in again he began to place light kisses on the back of her neck.

This roused her.

"Jay," she said uncomfortably, knowing what was back there.

He pulled away and looked her dead in the eye. "You're not worthless," was all he said.

He leaned in to kiss her on the lips. It wasn't the quick peck that they'd shared on the Tourney field on her first day. It was like their kisses on the Isle. One that lasted until they couldn't breathe properly and was forced to pull away. A kind of kiss that they were deprived of since Jay left the Isle.

"Jay," Selene said again pulling away, but keeping her arms where they were around his neck.

She didn't know how to ask. It had been plaguing her mind since she got to Auradon. If she were being completely honest with herself, it had been on her mind while on the Isle as well. Her little chat with Evie didn't help either. There… thing. Her books told her that she was in a relationship, a romantic relationship. She knew it couldn't be considered anything more than pure entertainment on the Isle, something to do. But they weren't on the Isle anymore. Jay had changed, he was good. So, what were they to each other now?

"What is it, Selene?" Jay asked, one hand still in her hair as the other rested on her lap.

She let out a long sigh. She couldn't get herself to ask. "Have you talked to Ben yet?"

By the puzzled look on Jay's face, he clearly wasn't expecting that.

"Umm, no," he said knowing that wasn't what she wanted to hear.

Selene brought her arms down from around his neck, backing away slightly. "Jay, you promised."

"I know, but he's really busy."

"If you don't, I will," she threatened. "It would probably be best if I did anyway. You don't remember anything that happened."

"Don't worry, I'll handle it," Jay said. He reached for her hands and placed them back around his neck. "Don't you trust me?"

Selene smiled at his fake pout. "Of course, I do," she said. "I wouldn't have jumped through flames if I didn't."

Jay let out a chuckle. "Speaking of that, did you ever read that story?"

"Yes," she answered excitedly. "So, the soldier in the story already had a hurt shoulder. Which, I'm guessing, was why your shoulder hurt. I guess when we enter a story, it puts us in a character that already exists."

"Well, that sucked," Jay stated, remembering the pain in his shoulder throughout his time in the story.

"And the woman that gave you that invisibility cloak," she continued still excited.

"I wish I could have brought that back," Jay interrupted, thinking of all the mischief he could have had with the cloak.

"You're not a thief anymore, Jay. You don't need a cloak of invisibility. But I wonder," she said as a thought came to her. "We might have been able to if it didn't catch on fire. You brought back those leaves and your sling."

"Interesting," he said, thinking they should go back and get more leaves.

Selene snapped her fingers in front of Jay's face. "Hey, don't even think about it. We shouldn't be bringing back things that aren't from our world. It feels… wrong."

"Party pooper," Jay stated.

She simply gave him a dirty look and walked away to grab the book from her nightstand. "Anyway," she said to get the conversation back on track. "That woman was actually a witch. A good witch by the looks of it." She walked back to the table and opened up the book to _The Twelve Princesses_. "And somewhere along the line, something changed. Maybe it was our free will, but the story is different from what we went through."

"Different how? And what do you mean, 'free will'?" Jay asked.

"Free will, like we were in charge of our own actions," Selene explained. "We didn't even know the story, so we couldn't just let it play out. So, we acted on our own free will."

She flipped through the pages until she found the one that she was looking for. "The first thing that I noticed was that the soldier only took one branch from each set of trees." She glared at Jay who just shrugged. "Then, the soldier took care of the monsters all on his own. None of the princesses stayed behind to help, like I did. And the last thing that was different was that the soldier was actually older than us, so he asked to marry the eldest princess not…" Selene trailed off as they had been ignoring the fact that he had asked to marry Selene. "Um… well… me. I think I was one of the younger ones," she rushed out, snapping the book shut.

Selene looked everywhere but at Jay and he did the same.

Jay cleared his throat nervously. "So… you think we changed the story because we had control of our characters?"

"Uh, yeah. We did what we thought was right and our actions were what we would have done here in the real world," Selene answered.

Jay just nodded. He could have sworn he could hear his jacket mocking him again. It was still hanging in his locker and the longer they kept quiet the louder the jacket got. He looked at Selene and she still wasn't looking at him.

"Well, of course, I chose you!" Jay exclaimed in frustration, standing up from his seat, making Selene jump in surprise. "I didn't know those other princesses. I didn't know I was supposed to pick the oldest. What did you expect me to do?"

"Why are you yelling?" Selene asked surprised and a little upset. He made it seem like he only chose her by default, because she was safe, not because he wanted her.

Jay kept his back to her, not wanting to look her in the eye. "I don't know," he said in a normal tone.

"There's no need to get so angry," she said with a bite in her tone. "It's not like we're getting married anyway. You can choose whoever you want." With that Selene got up from her desk and put her book away.

 _You probably would have chosen Jordan if she were there with us,_ she thought to herself.

He was so frustrating. She could assume all she wanted that Jay asked Ben to bring her to Auradon because he wanted them to be together, to be her boyfriend, but she wouldn't know for sure until it came straight from his mouth, in clear words, that left no room for argument. No. Instead they'd share private moments together while every girl at the school thought he was free to date anyone he wanted.

This wasn't going to be good.

"Maybe we should head out," Selene suggested. "It's almost dinner time and we haven't seen our friends all day."

"Right," Jay agreed half heartedly.

"I'll get dressed," she stated as she was still in her pajamas.

When Selene finished getting ready, the two walked down to the dining hall. They joined their friends at a long dining table.

Evie was the first to greet them.

"Hey guys! Sooo, what did you do today?" she asked from her seat across from Selene.

She seemed extra perky.

Jay just gave her an exasperated look and started to eat his food.

"Umm, Jay almost gave me a heart attack this morning," Selene stated as if it weren't a big deal.

"What?" a few of them exclaimed.

Selene let out a half hearted chuckle as Jay rolled his eyes, still shoveling food into his mouth.

"I was just a little startled when he woke me up, that's all," she clarified.

"And anything else?" Evie asked. "We haven't seen you two all day."

"We had breakfast in my dorm, did some homework, I read a little, and, you know, talked," Selene stated, trying her best to act like nothing was bothering her.

Evie slumped in her seat. "That's it?" she asked crestfallen.

Selene just shrugged. It sounded uneventful and it didn't exactly end the way she would have liked, but she was still glad they had their Sundays again.

Looking down at her tray of food she cut her dessert in half, a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Scooping up the smaller half, she plopped it onto Jay's tray. He looked up at her questioningly.

"It's too much for me," she said giving him a small smile.

"Thanks," he said returning the smile.

It was a truce of sorts. Yup, definitely didn't end the way she wanted, but it was their Sunday.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note:** I know, I know. It's been forever since I updated. I think about this everyday, what could happen next, what I want to happen next, how things are going to play out. But I've been really busy with personal problems. It just feels like I have a million things going on in my head, but it's actually just 10 or so really big things going on and that's not including work. When I finally get a chance to sit down and write, I'm physically and emotionally exhausted that I just sit there and look at a blank to katrina who asked if I could finish this story "FAIRLY soon," the short answer is... no. lol Sorry.

Buuut you guys don't care about my problems. Just know I'm still working on it! Here's a chapter basically to thank you guys for sticking around. I appreciate all of you guys, I really do. On to the next!

* * *

 **Chapter 8**

Another Monday afternoon found Evie and Selene in Evie's dorm room studying after school.

"So, nothing else happened yesterday?" Evie asked for the fifth time that day. She'd been trying to get Selene to talk since she'd got her alone and away from Jay.

The younger girl couldn't help but laugh at Evie. She was desperate for some juicy details. Maybe if things had ended better with Jay, she would have divulged some information.

Just then a knock came at the door and Evie scoffed at the interruption. "Come in," she said.

Lonnie walked in. "There you guys are," she said.

"Lonnie," Evie said in faux cheer. "I thought you had stuff to do and I was gonna have alone time with Selene because Jay doesn't want her to be bombarded with people and perkiness."

So it wasn't just Selene and Evie by coincidence. That probably wasn't the case the previous week either. She could appreciate what they were doing for her.

"Well, yeah," Lonnie awkwardly giggled.

"It's fine," Selene said. "We were just studying. Wanna join us?"

"Actually, I thought that the three of us could go down and watch the guys practice."

"That actually sounds a lot better than doing homework," Evie said turning to Selene with an excited look on her face.

Selene looked down at her work.

"I guess I could finish after dinner," she said which resulted in Lonnie and Evie squealing.

"Great! Just leave your stuff here," Evie said pulling the new girl out of the dorm and rushing to the Tourney field.

When the three girls arrived to the field they could see the cheerleaders were also practicing on the sidelines. They moved to sit in the bleachers and Selene caught sight of Jordan. She was standing near the team bench, looking through her camera atop a tripod.

"Is that Jordan?" Selene asked innocently.

"Yeah. Have you met her yet?" Lonnie asked.

She shook her head. "No. I just hear you guys talking about her from time to time."

"Well, that's her," Lonnie stated. "And Audrey's over there giving orders as usual," she said pointing toward the cheerleaders. "Oh and that's Chad. Evies not too fond of those two."

"Ugh! Long story. But I'm not against forgiving and forgetting," Evie said clearly still a little affected by her history with the royal couple. It caused Lonnie to giggle a bit and Selene to chuckle along with her.

"Yeah, it is," Lonnie said. "But Jay's totally over it. Which is good since he and Chad are on the team together. That would have horrible effects to the season if he didn't. And of course, Audrey got a dance or two with Jay after Ben's coronation."

"Uh… Lonnie," Evie said, trying to get the girl to stop talking.

"A lot of girls were upset about that," she continued not realizing Evie was calling her name. "But they didn't date or anything. Audrey wasn't too happy about that. She was totally jealous when he kept flirting with every girl that crossed his path."

"Lonnie?"

"She's still upset about it, which doesn't make any sense because she's dating Chad." The talkative girl let out a laugh at a thought. "And then they broke up for a little bit. But she's back with Chad again. Oh! And remember when you guys were baking cookies and Jay was like, 'The name's Jay,' with that flirty smile of his."

"Lonnie," Evie said in a more brisk tone.

"Then there was cotillion and how he said he didn't have a date so that he could dance with all the girls. I think everyone realizes that Jay's not the settling down type."

"Lonnie!" Evie exclaimed, letting out a nervous laugh. "We all know that's just rumors. Jay's totally the settling down, one woman kind of guy."

It suddenly dawned on her who she was talking to. "Oh, right," Lonnie said to Selene. "I mean, just because he flirts with girls doesn't mean he goes around dating them. I'm sure when he gets the right girlfriend," she said nudging Selene. "He'll totally be completely engrossed in her and no one else."

Evie nodded in agreement, an encouraging smile in place.

"So… he danced with every girl at cotillion?" Selene regretted asking as soon as the words slipped between her lips.

"No," Evie and Lonnie said together.

"Technically… just one," Evie said carefully.

Selene just nodded. She really didn't want to ask another question she didn't want to know the answer to.

The silence stretched for a few long seconds as Evie and Lonnie exchanged a look. Evie shook her head, no. She really didn't think Selene wanted to know that Jay had a date to cotillion. But the words and guild were building in Lonnie. She gave Evie a pleading look, but the head of blue kept shaking no.

"It was me!" Lonnie exclaimed as if she were being interrogated. "He didn't have a date. I didn't have a date. He just made me captain of Swords and Shields and I really didn't want to go to cotillion alone."

"But nothing happened," Evie said. "It was just a friend thing."

"Right," Lonnie confirmed. "He's my teammate. Like a brother."

"Right," was all Selene could say.

Selene looked back down at Jordan. She was looking through her video camera.

 _Probably getting footage for her stupid web show,_ was Selene's petty thought.

She shook her head and looked down at her hands. She was being ridiculous. Jordan hadn't done anything to deserve the hostility Selene felt toward her.

Evie just watched Selene and noticed the sad expression on her face.

"Selene, are you okay?" she asked. "Did you want to head back and finish your homework?"

"Hmm?" Selene hummed looking up from her hands. She saw that both girls were now looking at her with concern written on their faces.

"Did we say something that upset you?" Evie asked, throwing a glare at Lonnie.

"Oh, no, I'm fine… Just trying to remember the stuff I read about Tourney."

"I'm surprised you knew about the game," Lonnie said, back to her normal cheer. "These guys never heard anything about it. Your knowledge about the world outside of the Isle of the Lost is very expansive."

Selene just let out a light laugh. "I spent more time reading about other places than appreciating the one I lived in."

Evie let out a scoff. "Who could appreciate a place like the Isle of the Lost anyway? If my mom hadn't discouraged reading, I probably would have done the same thing."

The three girls fell into silence and simply watched the rest of Tourney practice. Selene couldn't think of anything other than Jay and his relationship with the entire female student body. Evie could sense that Selene didn't want to talk, while Lonnie didn't want any more word vomit to get her new friend upset.

Once practice was over Jay walked over to Jordan to check on the footage she was capturing. He didn't miss the girls sitting in the bleachers and sent them a small wave. He also didn't miss Aziz making his way over to them. Although he wanted to follow along, he knew Jordan had other things she had to do. She was doing him a favor.

"Hey, Selene. What's up?" Aziz greeted the young girl.

"Oh… hey, Aziz," she greeted back, trying to hide the cringe she felt.

Unfortunately, for her, Evie and Lonnie decided they didn't want to get involved. They made an excuse to talk to Carlos and left Selene with Aziz.

Jay watched from the sidelines as Selene was all alone with his teammate. She had that awkward smile on her face, trying to be polite, but being terribly uncomfortable. He knew Selene didn't like Aziz much, she'd said so herself. But there was something inside him that just didn't feel right.

"Jay," Jordan said snapping her fingers in front of his face. "Are you paying attention?"

"Uh, yeah," Jay said turning back to the camera, but still trying to listen into Selene and Aziz's conversation. Unfortunately, they were a little too far away to hear clearly.

"Now, this is for the memory card," Jordan was explaining as Jay's attention was once again turning toward Selene and Aziz. "Jay! I'm doing you a favor, letting you borrow my camera. If you break it, I swear, I will find a way to use my magic to kill you and no one will be able to figure out it was me."

Jay sighed. "I'm sorry. It's just Aziz is flirting with Selene."

Just like all of Jay's other friends, Jordan had formulated her own conclusion on whether Jay and Selene were a thing or not. But unlike Evie and Lonnie, she didn't care.

Jordan looked over to the two on the bleachers. "She doesn't look at all interest," she observed. "You have nothing to worry about. That is, until you break my equipment, then you'll have something to worry about. Now pay attention!"

Forcing himself, he turned his attention and kept it on what Jordan was telling him. The last thing he vaguely heard Aziz say was, "So, after the next game we're allowed to go into town."

He knew about the trip into town. He was planning on asking Selene to go on a date with him that day. Then again, he couldn't get himself to ask her to wear is Tourney jacket either, so… maybe not.

"Jaayy," Jordan said warningly.

"I'm paying attention," Jay said. "That's the on/off button, playback button, where the memory card comes out. Keep going."

They were now engrossed in the camera in front of them that Jay didn't hear Aziz say, "Yeah, there are some nice diners and restaurants." He ran a hand through his pitch black hair and gave her a little smirk adding, "I can show you around, maybe buy you lunch or something?"

"Oh, uh…" Selene looked to her friends who were chatting away. She then looked toward Jay and Jordan who were huddled together around her camera. There was no one to save her from this.

"Unless… Jay already ask you?" he asked, a cocky brow raised.

"No, he didn't," Selene said through grit teeth. Did he really think being a jerk would work in his favor? "Actually, I think we're going as a group. You know, just a bunch of friends. So… just no."

She didn't actually know about the trip into town. She just really wanted to get away. So with that she walked away to her friends.

"Thanks a lot, guys," she said sarcastically to Lonnie and Evie.

"Sorry," they said together.

"We knew you could handle it," Lonnie added.

"So, what happened?" Evie asked.

After Selene recounted her short exchange with Aziz, Lonnie said, "So, he knows about you and Jay?"

Selene was caught off guard.

"What she means is… ummm," Evie didn't know how to spin this. All of Jay's closest friends made their assumptions, but they all knew not to bring it up. "Well… ummm… darn it, Lonnie!" Evie exclaimed.

"Sorry," she said. "Can we not tell Jay about this?"

Evie and Lonnie gave Selene apologetic looks. "Well, we just kind of like the thought of you two as a couple and I guess we just have that stuck in our head. Unless… you tell us different," Evie said, fishing for answers.

Selene new Jay cared about her. It didn't matter if they had a complicated, secret, relationship or not, they weren't actually dating.

"We're not," Selene said flatly. "He's free to date whoever he wants."

The two girls accepted Selene's answer, although there were sad expressions across the three teens faces.

"You seem upset about it," Lonnie said solemnly.

"Yeah, well…" was all Selene said.

"At least Aziz asked you out," Lonnie replied, receiving incredulous looks from the other two girls. "Well, maybe there will be others that are less creep-like."

This got the girls back to a lighter mood.

"And I love that you just blew him off," Evie admitted. "Sometimes we still need that Isle personality to get our point across."

Lonnie let out a laugh and Selene just shrugged rolling her eyes a little.

Jordan had finished explaining everything she needed for the second time. Jay chose that moment to look back to the bleachers. Aziz and Selene were no longer there. He found Selene laughing with Evie and Lonnie on the sidelines.

"Okay," Jordan started. "Take care of my baby and I won't have to kill you."

She handed her camera bag to Jay and walked off.

"Uh, yeah. Thanks," he called after her walking up to Selene.

"Bye, Aziz," he heard Selene say playfully causing Evie and Lonnie to giggle uncontrollably.

He'd never heard her talk to anybody like that except to himself. But she hadn't talked to him like that this whole week. She barely talk to him at all. It made his stomach churn.

"Hey," he said when he got closer. "What's so funny?"

He really didn't want to know.

Selene let out a light chuckle. "It's nothing. Ready for dinner?"

"Gotta shower first and make sure Jordan's camera is safely in my room," he said.

"She let you borrow her camera?" Lonnie said in shock.

Jay let out a laugh. "I begged. She shot some footage of practice and coach and I are gonna go over it to see what we can work on. Ben's supposed to be there, but, you know, king duties."

"Okay, well… we'll just meet you in the dining room then," Evie said as they walked toward the dormitory.

Jay walked to the to his room alone. Deep down inside he was upset that Selene hadn't offered to accompany him.

 _Don't be a little girl, Jay,_ he chastised himself. He couldn't help, but think that things weren't going in the direction he'd hoped with Selene. Things were different now.


End file.
